Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 9.30.07: Shall We Dance?
Warmest congratulations to our friends Junko Ozao and Jason Choy, whose lovely wedding was written up in this week's Vows column. Jason is an associate at Kirkland & Ellis, but Junko is a normal person, and that shortcoming cost them a spot in this week's Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. The news will likely ruin their three-week honeymoon, but such are the ruthless decisions our readers expect LEWW to make.
Here are the six finalists (all lawyers):
1.) Amanda Trivax and Brian Burnovski
More about these legal eagles, after the jump.
1.) Amanda Trivax and Brian Burnovski
(Buy them a braiser.)
The Case:
- Solid educational credentials, with a good mix of venerable Ivy institutions and some hipper "fun" schools: Amanda is Michigan/Columbia, and Brian is Yale/NYU.
- They're both associates at excellent NY law firms: Weil, Gotshal & Manges for her, Davis Polk for him.
- The "Our Story" blurb on their website is delightfully succinct:
First he randomly emailed her. Then they went on a date. And they fell in love (while on the date). Now they're getting married.Bless your hearts for sparing us the gory details -- although we're curious about the contents of that "random" email!
- Sloppy eyebrow alignment, but we can overlook that because they are cute, cute, cute!
The Case Against:
- Their rehearsal dinner was at Comerica Park, home of the 2006 American League Champion Detroit Tigers. Unfortunately for Detroit, it's 2007, and Amanda and Brian's rehearsal dinner took place just after the Tigers were eliminated from postseason contention. Bummer.
2.) Anna Skotko and Ben Vonwiller
(Buy them a breadbox.)
The Case:
- Anna and Ben met at Oxford, which -- you can't deny it -- is just a classy word to have in your write-up. She was getting a master's in economic and social history; he was working on a PhD in law.
- From 1994 to 2000, Anna was a dancer with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and the Boston Dance Company. Many former dancers forge glorious careers in the porn industry, but Anna settled for Harvard and Yale Law School. She's now bestowing her lithe hotness on the Southern District of New York, where she'll begin work in January as an AUSA.
The Case Against:
- Once again, LEWW's prestige meter spits back an error message when we input a foreign degree. Ben's are from the University of Sydney (with "first-class honors," which could be English for "summa").
- What do you do with a PhD in law? Apparently, you become a "project manager" at McKinsey like everybody else.(Ben is also a board member of a company his parents own -- yummy!)
3.) Amy Tovar and Benjamin Horwich
(Buy them a nutcracker.)
The Case:
- Prepare to have your eyebrows singed by the smoldering prestige of this two-JD couple! We'll start with their educational credentials, which are hefty: The bride is Stanford/Stanford; the groom is Princeton/Stanford.
- After law school, Amy clerked for Judge Joel Flaum of the Seventh Circuit, and Ben, who served as president of the Stanford Law Review, clerked in the northern district of California for Judge Vaughn Walker and then on the Third Circuit for Judge Edward Becker. Then he headed to the Supreme Court, where he racked up two more clerkships: for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and, following O'Connor's retirement, for Justice Samuel Alito.
- Both halves of this power couple are now associates at California law firms. She's at Munger, Tolles & Olson, and he's at Latham & Watkins.
The Case Against:
- Far be it from us to suggest that one could ever have too much of the resume-whoring goodness that is a federal clerkship, but four judges . . . how many mentors does one person need? Save some ass for the rest of us to kiss, Ben!
- At $6,155 for everything, their china isn't the most expensive we've seen, nor is it the ugliest (that honor belongs here). Still, LEWW predicts that the couple's grandchildren will know it as "Grandma's hideous china with the red spider-things."
The Verdict:
We've always known there would come a day when a member of the Elect would fail to win Couple of the Week. That day looms ever closer -- but hell no, it's not here yet! Congratulations to Team Tovar-Horwich!
(38) 
feels good
cute couples this week!
feels good
what was the chick's name on seinfeld who's name rhymed with a part of the female anatomy?
Thanks for the post Ms. Nostrils!
mulva
1 = boring
2 = interesting
3 = lawyers begetting lawyers = boring
i think this week is the hottest couples, in aggregate, that i've seen on LEWW...
the top two are both way hotter than most
Very good-looking couples for any occupation. In the super-elite of the attorney world.
I thought for sure the Harvard/Yale ballerina was going to take it this week but then I saw #3. Sigh.
And I agree with 4:30, this is the best-looking group, top to bottom, that I can recall.
yes great looking couples all around. good job
Oh, boy, another week's worth of heterosexual white lawyer couples!
This column really blows chunks. Either that, or Laurie is secretly and subtly mocking the massive tierist, Biglaw-centric attitude upon which these bozos thrive.
Somehow, though, I don't think she's doing that.
4:42, please point out the non-white and/or non-heterosexual couples who you feel should have been featured this week above the three that were.
(I take for granted that you are not seriously criticizing Laurie's emphasis on lawyer couples, given that this is a legal blog.)
Wish the Tigers were needing to use Comerica Park at this time of the year :(
4:42 - There not all white, I think there's some jewy jews in there.
For couple of the month, may I suggest one "wild card" candidate, chosen I suppose by Laurie, to compete with the winners?
This way, perhaps, a close second for the week might have a chance to surprise us all and win the whole thing for the month, seeing as it's put to a vote!
WGWANWWGWBN
(White girls with "A" names with white guys with "B" names).
why are at least 2 of every 3 couples on this topic always jewish? Can we sue NYT for racial discrimination?
First Class Honours in Australia = Magna Cum Laude in the U.S.
Summa Cum Laude would be the equivalent of winning a University Medal (undergrad or law school), or Supreme Court Prize (law school)
This was LEWW as it should be: we had two couples with decently impressive credentials, one couple with even more impressive credentials, and the best couple won (unlike the liberals, I can admit this as much as I disapprove of the Justice for whom the winner originally clerked for).
Good job Laurie.
#3 without question.
I sometimes think that LEWW needs to be a bit more judicious when handing out the "attractive" accolade. Here, though, it's deserved: All three couples are good looking (and not good-looking-for-lawyers) and this is easily the hottest LEWW match up we've had. When reading, I thought "there's no way a blonde H-O-Y-professional ballerina-AUSA who marries a cute Australian is gonna lose." And then . . . Couple # 3 wins with a combination of cutness, California cool, and that SCOTUS bid. Close call and great match up. Nicely done!
I'd like to see Anna and Amy in a relationship . . . .
Thanks so much Laurie for not letting your fans down and featuring people from crap schools. Given that this was the overall theme on ATL these past two weeks, I've been worried that you'd do that just to go along with the theme, which would have plainly sucked.
The Ozao/Choi couple was also impressive, and probably just as deserving to be featured as couple #1 with their two Yale undergrad degrees + one Dartmouth med degree. Though this was a close call and I can see why you wouldn't want to give the impression that you gave a preference to your friends.
I've seen that china in person -- it's certainly not traditional, but it is classy and looks nicer in person than in the pictures, especially when seen as a set.
Also, one of the mistakes people make when registering for china is aiming primarily to be sure that they "will still like" their china when they're old. So they wind up picking something boring and unimaginative. Not a good way to pick china, or to go through life. They're just dishware. If you're gonna spend a boatload of money (or make others spend that boatload of money), might as well pick something interesting.
This. "Feature". Fucking. Sucks.
Where's my wgwag couples dammit? Laurie, get on this!
I vote for Ozao/Choi. They seem like very cool people.
4:05-Tachyon, please stop commenting on LEWW, as your failure to attend decent schools for undergrad and law school and your lack of professional success should not deprive LEWW's fans from enjoying this column.
This feature makes me realize how lonely I am.
Say what you want 12:15 ... that china is bad.
I like the china. Beats that boring white pattern with the light blue stripe around the perimeter that every boring jackass gets.
Amanda and Brian - yawn....
Amy and Benjamin from law firms Minger and Fatkins...
Anna and Ben...Aussie hunk meets dancing goddess. Put down the glasses. There can be no other winner.
Judge Doffy - you don't fool anyone - but I've put down the glass as requested.
Vonklinkenhoffer - That's Gold!
Anna - oh my god! the fish! Jude nooooooo....
Couple 1 should win. They are way better looking.
Couple 3 would be nothing without the SCOTUS clerkship, which has frankly gotten old as a per se win "factor".
Also, who really asks for a nutcracker? Who actually cracks nuts?
Delores
Couple 1 takes the prize. By far the cutest!!!
Judge Doffy is right. Couple two by a mile. Dogga loves dugongs