A married New York City lawyer, Nathaniel D. Cullerton, 45, is reportedly facing significant financial repercussions after a video surfaced showing him kissing a junior colleague, Kelsey Borenzweig, 29, in Central Park. The incident has led to the retraction of a lucrative job offer from a rival law firm, Gibson Dunn, where Cullerton and five other partners from his current firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, were expected to join.
Sources familiar with the matter told the New York Post that Cullerton, a junior partner at Wachtell, earns an estimated salary of at least $4 million annually. Senior partners at the firm reportedly make around $12 million. While the specifics of the Gibson Dunn offer are confidential, insiders suggest Wachtell would have likely made a counteroffer to retain Cullerton, potentially amounting to tens of millions of dollars over his career. The video's virality is believed to have derailed these prospects.
Following the emergence of the video, which was shared by TikTok comedian Jay Guapo to his 3.5 million followers, Wachtell has suspended Cullerton pending an internal investigation. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the firm is examining the incident. It remains unclear if Borenzweig is also under investigation.
As of Wednesday morning, both Cullerton's and Borenzweig's profiles were still active on the Wachtell website. Borenzweig is an associate at the firm, and sources indicate she and Cullerton worked closely together on the Altman case against Elon Musk, which involved a dispute over OpenAI's nonprofit status. A photograph from May 2026 shows Cullerton and Borenzweig entering the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, for the trial.
The encounter reportedly occurred on the western edge of Central Park. In the video, Guapo can be heard telling the couple to "Get a room. There's kids watching." Borenzweig and Cullerton attempted to stop him from filming. The clip quickly gained traction on social media, becoming a subject of gossip within elite New York legal circles.
Cullerton is married to Moira Penza, 42, a partner at the law firm Wilkinson Stekloff. Penza is a former federal prosecutor known for leading the case against NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere. Cullerton obtained his JD from Georgetown University in 2013 and previously clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Borenzweig received her JD from New York University School of Law in 2022 and also completed clerkships before joining Wachtell.