Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
New York-based international law firm
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an American multinational white-shoe law firm headquartered in New York City.
The firm historically focused on litigation, but shifted towards corporate law after Brad Karp became chairman in 2008. The firm has offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Wilmington, Houston, Toronto, London, Brussels, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
History
Founding (1875–1949)
The firm that eventually became Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison was started in New York in 1875 by Samuel William Weiss and Julius Frank as a general commercial practice. In 1923, Samuel's son, Louis Weiss, started his own firm with John F. Wharton. That firm later merged with Samuel's firm, becoming Cohen, Cole, Weiss & Wharton. In the 1930s, the firm represented one of the Scottsboro boys. In 1946, Lloyd K. Garrison and Randolph Paul joined the firm, bringing the firm up to thirteen lawyers. The name changed to Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison.
Corporate law expansion
In the early 2010s, chair Brad Karp decided that Paul, Weiss needed to increase its exposure to the private equity industry so as to boost revenue.
“Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison” enters the record as new York-based international law firm. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Paul, Weiss and Rifkind can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7148900. VIAF identifies the subject as 154869142. The Library of Congress control number is n87921906. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 1875, 1949 and 1923.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.