By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang turned to law firm Paul Weiss amid his rapid fall this week, tapping a firm that reached a controversial deal with President Donald Trump last year and whose own longtime leader was forced to step down in February.
Huang resigned on Thursday after more than 30 years leading the top AI chipmaker, following reports that he had extramarital affairs with three women, including an Nvidia executive and Chinese businesswoman whom US intelligence suspects of being a Chinese spy.
Paul Weiss, Nvidia and a spokesperson for Huang had no immediate comment on Friday about the nature of the law firm’s work for Huang.
New-York based Paul Weiss, with more than 1,500 lawyers, long has been a go-to for corporate boards and executives facing regulatory scrutiny, misconduct allegations or other reputational crises.
It built a reputation pairing lucrative work for Citigroup and other business clients with liberal advocacy and fundraising for Democratic candidates, including Kamala Harris.
But the firm drew sharp criticism within the legal profession and from Democrats last year after striking a deal with Trump to rescind an executive order the Republican president issued against it in March 2025.
Trump’s order suspended security clearances for the firm’s lawyers and restricted their access to government buildings and officials, citing its internal diversity policies and its association with a prosecutor who investigated the president.
Paul Weiss pledged in its settlement to dedicate $40 million in pro bono legal services to support “mutually agreed” projects with the White House, sparking similar deals by eight other law firms. Its longtime chairman Brad Karp defended the accord, calling Trump’s order an existential threat.
The tumult facing Karp ramped up early this year, after emails surfaced showing Karp’s extensive personal and business communications with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Karp resigned from his leadership post in February, saying the reports about Epstein had created a distraction that was not in the firm’s interests. He has not been accused of wrongdoing.
GO-TO FIRM FOR CORPORATE CRISES
Paul Weiss has a stable of former senior Justice Department officials and others who frequently step in for clients when crisis strikes.
BlackRock in 2021 hired partner Loretta Lynch, who was US Attorney General under President Barack Obama, to assist with an internal probe of former employees’ claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.
Huang is working with Paul Weiss partners Melinda Haag and Walter Brown, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Haag served as US attorney in San Francisco during the Obama administration. She and Brown did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently confirm which lawyers at the firm are representing Huang.
The Republican leaders of several US House committees, including Foreign Affairs, addressed a letter to Brown on Thursday stating they wish to interview Huang in closed-door session next month.
Haag successfully defended former Fitbit executive Katherine Mogal, who was acquitted in 2020 of federal charges alleging theft of trade secrets from a rival wearable-device maker. Brown is on the team defending Meta Platforms in a lawsuit by an Australian mining magnate over scam ads on Facebook showing him promoting fake cryptocurrency.
Nvidia’s board has hired another top firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Kratz to conduct an independent investigation. That probe will be led by Wachtell’s Joon Kim, a former senior federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper. Editing by David Bario and Nick Zieminski)
