The law firm that has helped Exxon Mobil notch significant victories in its battle against climate lawsuits from local governments has pulled out of at least four of the court fights.
Exxon and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison attorneys this month notified courts in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine and Washington state that the firm would no longer represent the oil giant as it fights efforts by governments and individuals in those states to hold the oil and gas industry financially accountable for climate change.
The filings did not elaborate on the reasons for the moves, but noted lawyers from other firms would remain as counsel. While rare, withdrawals from cases are not unheard of and can be made by either attorneys or clients for various reasons.
Paul, Weiss attorneys continue to represent Exxon in a number of other climate cases, including a longstanding challenge from Massachusetts.
The moves came at the same time as the chair of Paul, Weiss stepped down last week amid fallout over his email exchanges with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Brad Karp, who led Paul, Weiss for 18 years as it emerged as a major player in Exxon’s aggressive campaign to dismiss dozens of climate liability lawsuits across the country, will remain at the firm as a partner.
Karp did not work on the climate lawsuits, and there was no indication that the firm’s withdrawals were related to his move. Exxon and Paul, Weiss declined to comment.
He was replaced as Paul, Weiss chair by Scott Barshay and will continue to work with clients at the firm. Karp called the position the “honor of my professional life,” adding that “recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.”
Karp became chair in 2008, and Paul, Weiss noted in a statement that over the duration of his tenure, the firm had “advised on some of the most consequential matters in the legal industry.”
Under Karp’s leadership, Paul, Weiss became Exxon’s lead legal advocate in defending the oil giant against more than a dozen lawsuits launched by cities, counties and states seeking financial compensation for the costs of dealing with climate change.
The legal challenges could ultimately cost Exxon, Chevron, BP and other companies hundreds of billions of dollars. The oil and gas industry — with the backing of the Trump administration — is presently urging the Supreme Court to provide companies relief from the legal onslaught.
Republicans in Congress and state attorneys general offices have also launched efforts to invalidate the lawsuits, announcing investigations into a nonprofit that conducts judicial education on climate science and unsuccessfully petitioning the Supreme Court to block litigation in five Democratic-led states.
Under Karp, Paul, Weiss scored a major victory for Exxon in 2019, when the company prevailed in a yearslong, $1.6 billion battle with the New York state attorney general’s office over whether Exxon committed securities fraud by downplaying the financial risks it faced from climate change.
Paul, Weiss chalked up wins for Exxon last September, when a South Carolina state court sided with several oil producers, finding the city of Charleston did not have grounds to pursue legal damages from the companies under state tort law. Days earlier, a Puerto Rico federal court dismissed a class action lawsuit brought against the oil majors by several municipalities over the risk of climate change.
Paul, Weiss attorneys have represented Exxon for several years in two of the cases the firm exited this month.
In Connecticut, a state judge last November rejected Exxon’s bid to dismiss the state’s 2020 case, finding federal law did not prevent the state from suing the oil giant over misleading advertising. A state judge in Hawaii last month allowed the 2020 lawsuit brought by the city and county of Honolulu to move closer to trial.
In Maine, a federal judge in September sided with the state, granting its motion to transfer the 2024 lawsuit against 14 fossil fuel companies out of federal court and back to the state court where it was originally filed. In a Friday filing announcing the withdrawal of Paul, Weiss from the case, Exxon said it will continue to be represented by attorneys from Verrill Dana, a New England-based law firm.
Washington state’s case was filed by two individuals in December against Exxon, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips and is the first to argue that the fossil fuel industry has contributed to a spike in natural disasters that has led to rising homeowner insurance premiums.
Paul, Weiss’ work for Exxon has sparked a backlash among climate activists at some of the most prominent law schools in the country. Law students at Harvard and Yale began protesting Paul, Weiss in 2020 for representing the oil and gas industry, following news reports in 2015 that revealed Exxon researchers had known the risks of climate change since the 1970s.
Students targeted Paul, Weiss campus recruitment events, vowing to keep up pressure until it dropped Exxon as a client. Hundreds of law students signed pledges that they would not work for the law firm while it represented the oil company in climate litigation.
The effort led to the creation of Law Students for Climate Accountability, which grades the 100 most prestigious U.S. firms on their legal transactions for the oil and gas industry. It has consistently given Paul, Weiss an “F.” The group’s 2025 report called Paul, Weiss “the worst actor in the litigation field,” noting it received nearly seven times as many points for representing fossil fuel companies as other prestigious firms.
In the wake of the student protests in 2020, Karp defended Paul, Weiss’ work, citing the law firm’s successful defense of Exxon in the securities fraud case launched by the New York attorney general’s office.
One of the members of the Paul, Weiss team that secured Exxon’s win against the New York attorney general’s office is now working for the oil company. Justin Anderson joined Exxon’s legal team in 2023 as assistant general counsel for litigation.
Anderson said at a Federalist Society convention last November that defeating the climate liability lawsuits “is a big priority not just for Exxon Mobil, but for the entire industry.”
Paul, Weiss drew criticism last year for its decision to sign an agreement with the White House to provide free legal aid as a way to avoid being targeted by President Donald Trump.
At the time, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sent letters to Paul, Weiss and eight other firms that reached settlements with the administration, asking whether they would aid efforts to undermine climate action.
Trump had suggested that some of the law firms could help with his efforts to boost coal production, and Whitehouse warned the firm that there was “abundant reason to expect that you may be dragooned by the Trump administration into fossil fuel’s service.”
Paul, Weiss told Whitehouse at the time that the agreement did not allow the administration to dictate the firm’s work.
