Paul Weiss Ends Solo Sustainability Group, Co-Leader Retires (1)

Paul Weiss is ending its sustainability practice as a stand-alone function, and that group’s co-leader is retiring, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The practice will be integrated into the firm’s overall work starting in 2026 and its co-chair, Dave Curran, is stepping down from the leadership role at the end of this year, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss a change that hasn’t been announced publicly. Curran will remain at the firm in an advisory role on work including artificial intelligence and sustainable governance, the person said.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison did not respond to a request for comment.

The move follows the firm’s decision earlier this year to strike the words environmental, social and governance from the practice area’s name on its website. Companies such as Mastercard Inc. and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. have been moving away from an ESG label that has come under Republican attacks as being a vessel for liberal initiatives.

Paul Weiss has been under particular scrutiny from Republicans as the third Big Law firm, after Covington & Burling and Perkins Coie, to be hit with punitive executive actions by President Donald Trump. The firm pledged $40 million in free legal services to the administration to scuttle the Trump executive order, and eight big rivals followed by making similar deals.

Carmen Lu, a partner in Paul Weiss’ mergers and acquisitions group and activism defense practice, will oversee ESG-related work broadly under the firm’s new approach with the practice, according to the person. Paul Weiss poached Lu from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in January.

The firm launched one of the legal industry’s first stand-alone ESG advisory practices in 2020 and a year later created the Sustainability and Law Institute. Paul Weiss called the institute a “thought leadership forum” that partnered with universities and convened conferences on ESG topics, with a past client roster that included Exxon Mobil Corp. and the former Viacom.

Paul Weiss’ website lists Curran as co-chair of the Sustainability Advisory Practice and executive director of the institute. Curran will continue the institute’s work under his advisory role when he retires, according to the person familiar. The firm took down the institute’s web page earlier this year.

Brad Karp, the firm’s chairman, acted as the other co-chair for the sustainability practice, according to the person.