On January 30, 2026, the DOJ published 3.5 million pages in the latest release of the Epstein Files. Several documents included within the release implicated Brad S. Karp, a Union alumnus and former trustee. Karp had served as chairman of the prestigious Manhattan-based law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison since 2008, the highest ranking position at the firm. Karp announced his resignation from the role on February 4, but continues to serve as a partner at the firm.
Karp met Epstein through his firm’s representation of Leon Black, an American investor and former client of Epstein. Karp and Epstein’s correspondence showed a personal relationship between the two, with Karp thanking Epstein for a dinner at his New York City mansion in one email and asking Epstein for assistance in securing his son a role in a Woody Allen film in another. Karp communicated with Epstein as late as 2019, when he offered Epstein legal advice regarding a plea deal Epstein made roughly a decade earlier involving soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Karp’s resignation from the Union College Board of Trustees was announced to the campus community by President Kiss on February 9 in a short message from Board Chair Julie Greifer Swidler ‘79. This announcement follows a letter sent to Swidler, Kiss, and the Board by the Union College chapter of the American Association of University Professors calling for Karp’s resignation. The letter called his continued membership “ethically inconceivable” and a “liability to the Union College community.” Karp had served as chief legal counsel to the board as well as chair of audit and risk.
His absence from the board is not expected to cause any issues, with Kiss stating that the college continues to have a general counsel and numerous lawyers on the board with the capacity to fill the role, and that someone on the audit and risk committee would be asked to replace him as chair. Karp graduated from Union with a political science degree in 1981.
Despite a misconception circling campus messaging boards, Karp Hall is not connected to Brad Karp, having been named for a gift from the unrelated Karp Family Foundation.
“The announcement of Brad Karp’s resignation seemed to leave many students at Union confused,” says Student Forum President Kassandra Smeltzer ‘27. “However, we appreciate the transparency of his stepping down, and a lot of us want to be more informed on the story. It feels very strange to have an individual so close to Union be potentially involved in such an uncomfortable chain of events.”
