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Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 11.11 - 11.25: Jamaican Me Wealthy

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The Legal Eagle Wedding Watch is kicking off 2008 with a few leftovers from 2007. But we think you’ll agree that these offerings are worth savoring. These couples have got a little bit of everything: brains, looks, athletic ability, and (something that never goes stale) lots and lots of money.
Here are the contenders:

1.) Ellen Zajac and Teddy Schwarzman
2.) Stephanie Alperin and Eric Biderman
3.) Erica Greenbaum and Mark Gerson
4.) Katherine Van Loon and Jon Steitz

More about these couples, after the jump.


1.) Ellen Zajac and Teddy Schwarzman
The Case:
– The bride and groom went to Emory and U. Penn., respectively. They met during law school at Duke (Teddy graduated cum laude).
– Both halves of this attractive couple are BigLaw associates. Ellen works in residential mortgage-backed securities at Thacher Proffitt, and “Teddy” (his real name is Edward) is at Skadden.
– What’s truly impressive, though, is that they work at all. Teddy’s father is Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, “the new king of Wall Street” who’s estimated to be worth more than three billion dollars.
The Case Against:
– Officiant overkill at the glittering Montego Bay nuptials: a Roman Catholic priest, the president of a Kingston synagogue, and a Jamaican “marriage officer.” But was there no room in the Learjet for a prestigious Article III judge?
– Normally we’d take this opportunity to mention how worthless Duke Law is. Okay, we just did. But Ellen, at least, has three billion reasons to be glad she went there.
2.) Stephanie Alperin and Eric Biderman
The Case:
– The bride (Wash. U./Cardozo) will be an associate at Paul Hastings next fall. The groom (Cornell/Cardozo) is an associate at the legendary powerhouse firm of Winget, Spadafora & Schwartzberg, where he toils alongside the great Luigi Spadafora himself.
– Stephanie’s dad is a Skadden partner.
The Case Against:
– Nothing. But other than Stephanie’s undeniable extreme cuteness, this couple isn’t giving us a lot to work with.
3.) Erica Greenbaum and Mark Gerson
The Case:
– The bride, a rabbi, was magna at Amherst and has some other boring degrees that are relevant to being a rabbi. The groom, more interestingly, was summa at Williams and got a JD from Yale.
– Mark is the founder of Gerson Lehrman Group, a New York information-services company that has been called the “[m]ost valuable NYC company no one outside Wall Street has ever heard of.” It’s certainly doing well enough for Mark and Erica to have their own vacation home in Sag Harbor.
– According to the New York Observer, Mark, who is active in right-wing circles, is “the Friendster of the neoconservative establishment. … His congenial brilliance, amiable nature, and unsolicited offers of help to others have placed him at the center of the intellectual-political-financial complex that spans from Wall Street to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
The Case Against:
– Technically, we have to dock this couple a few points for lacking a practicing lawyer (halacha doesn’t count).
4.) Katherine Van Loon and Jon Steitz
The Case:
– The bride met the groom in a New Haven bar. She was studying for a master’s in public health at Yale; he was an undergrad pitching phenom who’d recently been drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers.
– Jon had a 97-mph fastball, but his professional baseball career was cut short by rotator cuff tendinitis. Katherine, who was studying for her MD at the Medical College of Georgia while Jon was in the minors, had to settle for a lawyer husband instead — Jon headed back to Yale for a JD.
– He’s now a consultant in Boston for McKinsey & Company; she’s a resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The Case Against:
– Best man Craig Breslow provides a bone-headed quote to the effect that if Jon’s pitching career had worked out, Jon and Katherine would have broken up. He also seems confused about what the word “pretension” means. LEWW was unsurprised to read that Breslow pitches for the Red Sox.
The Verdict:
With all due respect to the firm of Winget, Spadafora & Schwartzberg, Team Zajac-Schwarzman are the only contestants currently practicing law in firms LEWW can pronounce without giggling. Also, they’re gorgeous and rich. And now they’re Above the Law’s Legal Eagle Couple of the Week! Congratulations!

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