Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 10.7.07: Sweet Virginia
We had a tough time picking our finalist couples this week, and LEWW will be the first to admit that we're not totally certain we chose the right three. (We're sure our commenters and e-mailers will let us know if we've dropped the ball.) Specifically, in addition to our three finalists, we considered these three couples, and if you work at Shearman, Simpson Thacher, Wachtell, Willkie, or Ropes & Gray, you might want to click on those links to read about your colleagues or their spawn.
But onward to this week's finalists! Here they are:
1.) Nisa Leung and James Lin
More on these couples, after the jump.
The Case:
- Mouth-watering prestige, with an international flavor! Nisa, who has an undergraduate degree from Cornell and an MBA from Stanford, is a partner in a Shanghai venture capital fund. James, who was summa at Harvard undergrad and cum laude at HLS, is a partner in Davis Polk's Hong Kong office. He also has a master's and a doctorate from Oxford.
- Nisa's dad is the owner of a clothing manufacturing company and recently became chairman of Hong Kong's Football Association. (Not the Michael Vick kind of football, the other kind -- although come to think of it, what would they do to Michael Vick in Hong Kong?) Her mother is on the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Council.
The Case Against:
- Fierce loyalty to the approximately 20 million Lins in our clan forbids us from saying anything bad about this impressive pair. Welcome to the family, Nisa!
2.) Beth Schonmuller and John Williams
(Buy them a towel bar.)
The Case:
- John has married a disproportionately hot wife, but that's not why he looks like he just gobbled up a smug-burger. It's because he's achieved the top-Ivy hat-trick, with degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (law [cum laude], undergrad [magna], and a master's in philosophy, respectively). He's currently a litigation associate at Williams & Connolly.
- Beth, who's Harvard (magna)/Harvard, an associate at Kirkland DC, and a raven-haired stunner, was a special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for eight months during the Roberts and Alito nominations.
The Case Against:
- There's something weird about the way the article describes Beth's Judiciary Committee service. It's as if Arlen Specter looked around in July 2005 and said, "Guys, we're facing a bitter battle over two nominations that could change the direction of the Supreme Court. The liberal interest groups will fight us every inch of the way. We need 2004 HLS grad Beth Schonmuller up here, stat."
3.) Virginia Boyd and J. B. Lockhart IV
(Buy them a claret glass.)
The Case:
- Each side of the union arrived at the church with its own Episcopal priest. Stand back, people -- we've struck a vein of pure WASP gold.
- The bride and groom both have undergraduate degrees from Yale (she was summa), but they met at Harvard while in graduate school (law for her, business for him). Now she's working for Big Media in the digital legal affairs unit at Warner Music Group, and he's at a venture capital fund.
- Just look at Virginia. The sweet smile, the tasteful jewelry -- class is seeping from every pore of her alabaster skin. Is it possible that she is not descended from a long line of business titans? No, it's not! Her father is retired from the chairmanship of Boyd Steamship Corporation, a company founded by Virginia's great-great uncle in 1909. In other words, her ancestors were already exploiting the third world back when ours were eating raw squirrel and wiping themselves with leaves.
The Case Against:
- If only James Bicknell Lockhart IV went by the impish, entitled "Ivy," the picture of croquet-playing, pastel-sweater-wearing privilege would be complete. Alas, he attempts to pass as a commoner with the fumbling, pedestrian "J.B." We are not fooled, James Bicknell Lockhart IV -- your princely lineage is evident in every strand of your billowy hair.
The Verdict:
Honestly, we feel like we did when we were choosing our wedding gown. LEWW is wracked with self-doubt; we honestly can see a case for ranking these couples in any order, and we don't want to get this one wrong. So we're going to try an experiment and let ATL readers pick this week's winning couple. Don't get too excited; we're not quite ready to yield the scepter of power permanently. We'll see how this goes.
Check back here to see how the voting's going; the poll will close late Wednesday night.
(48) 
I vote for #1, as they are the only couple not to make me sick to my stomach.
forgot to include peter lattman's wedding in here
I vote for the Lins as well. Also James Lin is a really nice guy.
Does anyone else think these Legal Eagle Wedding posts are entirely a waste of time? Who cares?
Laurie, you're a sweetheart with a lovely sense of humor, but this feature has become extremely boring. Can you please use your talents in another fashion? Please come up with another feature. It’s already almost too late.
yes, you missed peter lattman's post
Schonmuller-Williams by a mile. They're both former circuit clerks -- Williams for Boggs of the 6th, and Schonmuller for Wesley of the 2d.
she didn't miss it. this covered 10/7. Lattman's was the 14th.
Dear huh? -
This whole blog is a waste of time. People don't surf the web for gossipy blogs because they're trying to be productive. They do it to be entertained.
Just so you're not embarrassingly stupid enough to ask other people's opinions on what constitute wastes of your time in the future, I will tell you now that other wastes of your time include: every time you post a message on the blog.
Number nine MoFO's...
BTW, how can the condutor of the Boston Pops not be number 1. Also, how come he was eating alone in a restaurant? He might be a stalker.
11:22
OK
Lattman
Keith Lockhart is an institution in Boston...what's wrong with you? You so should have picked him.
I like LEWW and look forward to it every week. I would like to see more of Lat's snarkiness, but Laurie's doing a good job.
Why don't you ever include posts about TTT students? all we ever see are Harvard grads marrying Yalies?
The second of "these three couples" should have been included. A director of the Boston Pops, a saucy blonde, and a 17 year age gap is far more interesting than the latest spawnings from the WASP nest.
puke
The second of "these three couples" should have been included. A director of the Boston Pops, a saucy blonde, and a 17 year age gap are far more interesting topics than the latest spawnings from the WASP nest.
(sorry if this double-posts...)
None of these couples are good looking.
11:23 - Thanks for the lesson. The world is lucky to have super-smart people like you to tell the rest of us how stupid we are!
You must have very low self-esteem to feel the need to pump up your ego through anonymous blog posts. Why don't you go ahead and complete the deal by listing your law school credentials and LSAT score? Will that make you feel better about yourself? Surely you can prove your superiority that way!
This is by far the lamest feature on the internets. Please replace it with something - anything - relevant to a broader swath of your readers.
11:23 - and btw, I was referring to a waste of the author's time. I already know how to waste my own time... but , again, thanks for the life lesson.
Nice to see some asian girls with asian guys for a change.
AGWAG!!!!!111
Also, couple #1 is shinier than Lat in his TTT internet tv makeup disaster.
Thanks for this column Laurie. Most couples featured are truly outstanding people and I appreciate and enjoy reading this every week.
I can't believe you forgot to mention that John Williams was the president of APDA! This is what happens when Lat leaves it to others to do this.....
Is it just me, or has this site sucked recently?
How can it not be team 2, Schonmuller/Williams? The only true lawyer/lawyer pair here, and the high WASPs barely have one lawyer (does in-house even count?). Add the circuit clerkships and you more than overcome John's weird gremlin look.
12:22 - you are right on. This site has been extremely lame as of late.
Williams, for a debater, was like the nicest, most genuine guy ever. Though before I went to law school he told me he was summering at Cravath and I was like, oh, is that a good firm and he just smirked and said, "yeah."
LOL!
But he's really a great, great guy with an awesome sense of humor. Congrats, John, you get my vote to win this week!
Man....after last week's contestants, this week looks like it fell out of the ugly tree!!
17-year age gap, two divorces, hitting on (though admittedly taking cues from) someone on a date? Boston Pops should have been one of the couples, if only to put money on how long this marriage will last.
You people miss the point. It's not about who is "nice" or a "good person," or admirable or noble. And diversity has no place in the analysis. It's purely about WASPy social status. Everything about couple #3 makes them the perfect NYT couple. The lineage. The names. The IV. The look. The professional B&W photo.
When will you people learn that this isn't actually a popularity contest?
Well put, 2:14. In some ways, the couple that wins should be the ones you'd _least_ like to hang out with.
It's amazing how resentful people can be in these comments.
I have been following LEWW since the beginning and this column is first and foremost about highlighting achievements, with an unsurprising emphasis on achievements early on in life given that this is when people get married. Boyd/Lockhart would never have been featured here if they did not have incredible academic accomplishments (2 Yale degrees (one summa!), HLS, HBS, etc.) There have not been that many couples from truly upperclass background since the beginning of LEWW, and indeed there is only one this week. Of course most couples (though by no means all) are upper-middle-class since upper-middle-class people are more likely to accomplish more. I bet that if any poor couple had impressive resumes Laurie would give them a preference, if anything.
Now, when comparing couples with only HYP undergrad, HLS, HBS, etc., then maybe it makes sense to vote for the one from the most prestigious family background, but even then it does not appear to be what Laurie is doing since she left this up to a vote.
I'm really curious who the dissenters think should have been featured because none of the three runner-up seems as deserving as either couple 2 or couple 3 this week.
2:23: Do you choose your friends based on how unprestigious their undergrad is or based on how poor their parents are? Or maybe you choose your friends by their race (non-white being a plus, of course, or else that would be racist)?
The information that we have on people getting featured says absolutely *nothing* about how "nice" they are, how loyal they would be as friends, etc. It does say a great deal, however, about how accomplished they are. In my experience, accomplishment correlates positively at least a bit with "niceness" (the assholes I know tend to be bitter people who hav little going on for them)Admittedly, though, the correlation is far from perfect and probably not statistically significant. In any case, if you wanted to rank people based on how nice they are you would need to solicit emails from people who know them rather than make judgments based on the NYT feature.
Congrats to this week's winner, whoever it ends up being.
Why do WASPs always look about 53 years of age?
Couple #1 is a threat to wgwag. Asian women are ugly. we need to stop showing asian women with asian men. I DEMAND WGWAG (white girls with asian guys). Only white chicks are hot
Leung and Lin look too much like sister and brother.
Why does Virginia Boyd look like she's 45?
Why does Virginia Boyd look like she's 50?
This is a tired bit. It's dull, old hat, and stinks of elitism. How about a legal eagle wedding watch for the public defenders, prosecutors, contract attorneys, etc.
Please end this stupid column. Seriously, what fucking tards are actually reading this? Or rather, which tard is reading this?
This was one of the best columns in a long time (both because of how well-written it was and because of the quality of the couples, all of whom were stronger than last week's). I am very much of a LEWW traditionalist and I do not like the idea of a popular vote for the weekly column on principle, but I have to forgive Laurie on this one, since I myself cannot choose between Couple 2 and Couple 3 (if Leung's undergrad degree was from Harvard or Yale rather than Cornell, we may even have a 3-way tie). All three couples were stronger than the three non-featured finalists, so that was another good call.
12:04: Apparently, you are.
9:02 - Don't equate my clicking on it to comment on its absuridty with my reading of the actual column.
If you comment on the absurdity of a column that you don't even bother reading, that reflects even more poorly on you. Those of us who read it enjoy it.
12:04 = A Blog Oblividiot
Blog Oblividiot = Someone who wastes his time by commenting that a blog post is a waste of his time, oblivious to the irony of his act.
Although the NYT's article doesn't mention it... Beth Schonmuller also clerked for 2nd Circ Judge Richard Wesley...BEST Judge EVER!!!
10:43 - That I did not read this particular column does not mean I have not had the misfortune of reading it before. As a feature, it fails tremendously for all the reasons countless others have articulated above.
Trust me, I am easily amused and completely prone to indifference. The craptasticness of this feature, however, spurs me to action.