Contests, Reader Polls, Weddings

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: May 2007 Couple of the Month

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Time to take a little Friday afternoon break and vote for ATL’s Legal Eagle Couple of the Month for May 2007!
Last month’s contest was extremely close; we have a feeling this one won’t be, but time will tell. We’ve certainly got plenty of diversity this time: Jews, WASPs, Jersey folk, and law professors!
If you’re ready to vote, here’s the poll. If not, click on the “Continue reading” link below, to study up on our candidate couples.

1. Eve Brensike and Richard Primus
The Case:
– These two are frighteningly well-credentialed. Eve was magna at Brown and summa at Michigan Law (where sources tell us she racked up the highest GPA in the school’s history). Few suitors would be worthy of such a goddess, but Richard is one such academic Adonis: He was summa at Harvard, a Rhodes Scholar (at Balliol — another shout-out to Lord Peter!), and received a JD from Yale, where he undoubtedly would have been summa if Yalies understood Latin.
– Richard did time in the chambers of the Dark Elf, where he punched his ticket to a Ruth Bader Ginsburg clerkship. Eve, though not a member of the Elect, was no slouch herself in the clerkship department; she’s a former bleeding Reinhardt.
– Rumor has it that these two were set up by their boss, the luscious Dean Evan Caminker! As if Michigan faculty meetings weren’t already steamy enough, what with Caminker’s mega-hunkitude — now McDeany is playing Cupid? Kudos to the Michigan faculty and students for getting any work done amidst the torrid hormonal stew their school has become. UVA may be the nation’s coolest law school, but we nominate Michigan for the hottest!
The Case Against:
– In a troubling breach of their egalitarian values, the groom makes more money than his bride. Despicable! Why don’t you just bind her feet and chain her to a stove, Richard?
– We can’t find a wedding registry for these two. What are they, Communists? (Never mind, we don’t want to know.) Although Eve and Richard have apparently eschewed kitchen-related wedding booty, Google reveals that you can make a donation in the couple’s honor to MassEquality, an organization working for marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. (Isn’t that a bit like joining Augusta National and asking your friends to make a commemorative donation to NOW? We’re just sayin’ — we can think of more impressive displays of commitment to the cause.) You can also donate to the Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor in honor of Richard’s Jewish Day School education.
Update: We received an e-mail from a tipster, who passed along a juicy link to Richard and Eve’s wedding homepage, with the following commentary:

in order to sate your brensike-primus hunger, i give you their wedding homepage. you can get a look at the registry (and designated charities); the cold, awkward proposal and accompanying picture; and most important, a professorial tutorial on jewish wedding customs (if only one could employ the socratic method in web-form). it’s all pretty hilarious. oh, when nerdy law professors unite…

And apparently they did register for quite a bit of wedding booty! We apologize for calling them Communists. Buy them an ice cream scoop!
2. Eliza Harrington and Minor Myers III
(Buy them a grapefruit knife.)
The Case:
– Plenty of Ivy League stuff here! Minor went to Connecticut College and Yale Law School; Eliza went to Harvard and received her MD from the University of Rochester.
– They had an Article III officiant: Judge Peter W. Hall of the Second Circuit.
– Minor is member of the Society of the Cincinnati, “widely considered to be one of the most prestigious and sought-after accomplishments in the hereditary society community.” (The big strand of DNA in the corner of that website is a nice touch, just in case you peons weren’t clear on the “hereditary” aspect.)
The Case Against:
– It looks like the new Mr. and Mrs. will be living apart for a while. He’s leaving Debevoise to teach at Brooklyn Law School, and she’s finishing her pediatrics residency in Rochester.
– No picture. However, we attended law school with the groom, and we’ll testify that Minor is a major hottie! (You can feast your eyes on Minor and his equally handsome brother here.) We weren’t able to find a picture of Eliza, but we can’t imagine a discerning gent like Minor breeding with anyone less than an aesthetic equal. LEWW hereby pronounces Eliza ravishing, sight unseen!
Update: Eliza’s mom was kind enough to send in a link to some pictures of the wedding.

3. Jessica Rodriguez and Emile Lisboa
(Buy them a cheese preserver.)
The Case:
– Jessica and Emile are the first legal-eagle couple we’ve featured who’ve had a video accompanying their NYT write-up (you can view it here). To our shock, we did not find it entirely appalling. (No, we’re serious! It’s kind of sweet.)
– The groom’s father is a judge on the Superior Court of New Jersey. That sounds quite impressive (although it’s possible that New Jersey is one of those states where the prestige of the court is inversely related to the showiness of its name).
– Emile’s full name is Severiano Emile Lisboa IV. LEWW has always wanted to have a son who’s an IV, so we could nickname him “Ivy.” So cute and preppy! (Something tells us that preppiness was neither a goal nor a possibility for the Lisboa clan.)
– These two make the couples who usually win this competition seem utterly bland and lifeless by comparison. Jessica and Emile are full of zest: They salsa till six in the morning! They have five registries! Their facial features display emotion!
The Case Against:
– Between the groom’s accent, the couple’s three Rutgers degrees, and all the mentions of Hackensack, Newark, etc., there’s a whole lot of Jersey here. Not that LEWW has anything against New Jersey! (Well, we do prefer to pump our own gas — rugged self-sufficiency and all that.)
– The bride, who has a master’s in educational theater, is an acting coach for child actors. Is there a phrase more tinged with foreboding than “child actor”? We can’t even look at poor little Dakota Fanning anymore without imagining the future fake-rehab stints and crotch pictures. Get out of this grim business, Jessica, and go work for Sesame Street.

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4. Rebecca Kristol and Elliot Silver
(Buy them a cake pan.)
The Case:
– Rebecca and Elliot graduated from Duke, where they met. Elliot went on to law school at NYU, while Rebecca went to work as a web designer in New York.
– The father of the bride is none other than pundit, publisher, and neoconservative luminary Bill Kristol (That makes Rebecca the granddaughter of Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb).
– Elliot’s parents are no less impressive: His mother is a doctor and professor of medicine at Cornell, and his father is a psychiatrist at NYU.
– Rebecca and Elliot could pass for high school sophomores, but you can also squint at them and picture how they’re going to look in about 40 years. LEWW pronounces them super-cute and predicts they will be adorable grandparents!
The Case Against:
– Why does Elliot have his back turned toward Rebecca? Taking a cue from US Magazine, LEWW consulted some body-language experts, who revealed that this is bloody poor engagement-photo-positioning: “Everyone knows that the woman should be turned toward the camera, wearing a self-satisfied smile, while the groom should be angled toward her, protectively but with a faint suggestion of supplication.”
– Elliot is starting at Skadden this fall. Yawn.

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