Contests, Reader Polls, Theane Evangelis, Weddings

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: December 2006 Couple of the Month

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We’ve named all the winners in Legal Eagle Wedding Watch for the month of December 2006. So now it’s time to vote for the December “Couple of the Month.”
We expect this to be a highly competitive contest. There were actually five wedding weekends in December, and in one of the weeks, we had a tie. So there are no fewer than six couples in competition, with similar overall scores (two 8.90s, two 8.75s, one 8.70, and one 8.37).
If you’d like to review the couples one more time, our original write-ups — with scores, links to their NYT wedding announcements, and photos (in some cases) — appear after the jump.
But if you’re ready to vote, here’s the poll:

To check out the field one more time, look at their profiles, which appear after the jump.


1. Sandee Brawarsky, Barry Lichtenberg
Résumé score: 8.5. They’re a little older than the usual couple — both 50 — so the standards applied to them may be a bit higher. She’s a graduate of U. Penn (summa), who is a freelance writer and the book critic for The Jewish Week. She’s also the author of How To Meet Men as Smart as You — no longer in print, but available on Amazon for twenty-eight cents. Brawarsky does appear, however, to have the credentials for writing such a book. Her new husband seems to be as smart as she is. His undergraduate institution, Queens College (summa), is less prestigious than hers; but he makes up for it with a law degree (from Cornell). He has his own law firm.
Family score: –. The announcement is light on the parental information.
Balance score: 8.8. They’re well-matched. Read on for the story of how they met.
Beauty score: 8.8. In this department, we grade them on a gentler curve due to their age. She’s quite pretty and looks a bit like Donna Murphy. He exudes a boyish appeal. They both look good for 50-year-olds, and they have nice smiles.
Overall score: 8.70.
Additional comments: The story of how they meet is kinda weird — and remarkable. They were fixed up, in a sense, by Barry Lichtenberg’s late wife. Before she passed away in 2003, after fighting cancer, Rifka Rosenwein told Barry that he should marry again. She recommended Sandee Brawarsky to her husband, and said she’s “a good person, she’s pretty and would be good for you.” Wild!
2. Theane Evangelis, Teddy Kapur


Résumé score: 9.4. She’s one of the Elect, a former law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (OT 2004), as well as Judge Alex Kozinski. She’s a Georgetown (cum laude) and NYU Law (summa) grad, now at the entertainment law boutique of Ziffren Brittenham (shortened; the firm’s official name is interminable). He’s also a lawyer, now at O’Melveny & Myers. He graduated from Rice (magna), Harvard (MPA), and NYU Law (JD). (Theane and Teddy’s score of 9.4 falls just shy of the 9.5 garnered by Lori Alvino and Matthew McGill.)
Family score: 8.8. Her parents own a gas station and automotive sales and repair business. His mother is a retired network engineering manager for AT&T, and his father is a manager of information technology at the University of Houston. These jobs aren’t super-glamorous, and normally we’d score them lower. But the Evangelis and Kapur families have evidently very well for themselves, in light of the extravagance of their childrens’ wedding (described below).
Beauty score: 8.9. Attractive. He has a well-shaped head. She’s the Greek version of Minnie Driver.
Balance score: 8.5. Teddy Kapur is very well-credentialed. But he’s not one of the Elect. He didn’t graduate first in his class from NYU, as did Theane Evangelis. Nor did he get to drive Justice O’Connor’s car around Washington (as did his wife, for about a month, while clerking for SOC).
Overall score: 8.90.
Additional comments: The Boston Globe named the Evangelis-Kapur nuptials the Wedding of the Year. The Globe article describes the wedding as a “lavish two-day celebration join[ing] Greek and Indian traditions.”
You can read the Globe write-up here. One of our tipsters was there and had this to say:

The biggest law wedding in about a million years: Theane Evangelis (former Supreme Court clerk) and Teddy Kapur, both NYU grads. Huge wedding weekend in Boston over New Year’s Eve.

Two ceremonies — one Greek, one Indian. Serious food, serious cash (the Greeks showered the dancing couple with so many dollar bills that guests were dancing on money all night long), serious fashion (the bride wore Vera Wang luxe).

Guests were equally illustrious: a bunch of SCOTUS clerks, including Tali Farhadian, who attended the Indian ceremony on Saturday morning); Theane’s other co-clerk, Josh [Klein]; and some guy who also clerked for the Court. A bunch of NYU law people, another lawyer couple (the husband had worked with the groom, the wife was a law professor at Berkeley), and a lot of the groom’s friends who now work in hedge funds and investment banks.

It was written up as the wedding of the year in a three-page color spread in the Boston Globe. And of course there was the obligatory NY Times announcement.

3. Randi Harari, Jonathan Mason

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Résumé score: 8.7. She’s an associate at Morrison Cohen, a prominent midsize Manhattan law firm. She went to U. Penn. (cum laude) and NYU Law. He’s a Vassar grad and talent agent at Don Buchwald & Associates. Cool.
Family score: 8.6. Her father is a retired jeweler; her mother is a retired paralegal. His father is a doctor (internal medicine), and his mother manages his practice.
Beauty score: 9.0. Very good-looking couple. We wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s a former actor (as a fair number of talent agents are). Her hair is gorgeous — dark, straight, and lacquered-looking. Both have teeth out of a dentist’s ad.
Balance score: 8.7.
Overall score: 8.75.
Additional comments: Randi and Jonathan exude likability in their photo. We bet they’re fun to hang out with.
4. Lisa Kaplan, Brad Sherman
Résumé score: 9.4. Definitely the best of this week’s bunch. She’s Williams College, plus two master’s degrees, in public policy (Harvard) and international administration (whatever that might be). She now serves as deputy director of the office on global anti-Semitism, at the State Department. (Who knew there was such an office? We’d love to see a sit-down chat between her and Borat.)
Rep. Sherman was just elected to his sixth term in Congress, representing the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. And even if there are hundreds of them, which is why senators look down upon them, members of the House of Representatives are still a huge deal. Oh, and he’s very well-educated, too: UCLA (summa) and Harvard Law School (magna).
Family score: 8.8. Her family is interesting: her father is a forensic psychiatrist, and her stepmother is a portrait photographer. (Her mother is deceased.) His late father was an executive with the National Education Company, and his mother was his assistant campaign manager (which is kinda cute).
Beauty score: 7.8.
Balance score: 9.0.
Overall score: 8.75.
Additional comments: It’s pretty neat to be identified in the opening paragraph of your wedding announcement as “Brad James Sherman, Democrat of California.” Almost as good as “Brad James Sherman, an astronaut.”
5. Ilyse Langer, Steve Metzger
Résumé score: 8.6. She’s a Barnard grad (but her current occupation is unspecified). He’s a Tufts and Hofstra law grad, now at Schulte Roth & Zabel.
Family score: 8.1. Her father is a sales rep for a courier service; her mother is an ESL teacher in Queens. His mother is a resource specialist at a magnet school; his father is an assistant principal at a high school.
Balance score: 8.4.
Overall score: 8.37.
Additional comments: The officiant was Rabbi Steven Graber. Is he any relation to the sexy Judge Susan Graber (9th Cir.)?
6. Marla Tusk, Josh Gottheimer
Résumé score: 9.2. Finally,lawyers! Marla Tusk is in the counterterrorism section of the Justice Department — we like. She went to U. Penn (magna) and Columbia Law (Kent Scholar). Josh Gottheimer is the executive vice-president at Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm. He also went to U. Penn (summa), followed by Harvard Law. From 1998 to 2001 he was a speechwriter for Bill Clinton. Cool stuff!
Family score: 8.5. Her father is the director of operations for Optics, an eyewear maker; her mother is an agent at HF International Realty. (This week is heavy on parental realtors.) His father owns a cosmetics distribution company, and his mother is a retired kindergarten teacher.
Beauty score: 9.0. They’re as attractive as Cornelia Henning and Nicholas Van Amburg, supra, but in a different way. Marla has a darker, exotic beauty; Josh is handsome in the manner of a young politician (or PR exec, which he is).
Balance score: 8.9.
Overall score: 8.90.
Additional comments:They had a destination wedding at the luxurious Half Moon resort in Jamaica. Fantabulous, dahlings.
To read past editions of Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, click here, and scroll down.

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