Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 5.4 - 5.11: Penn-y Wise
Congratulations to Keira Driansky and David Simon, chosen by ATL readers over Kristy Hong and Jonas Blank III as April's Legal Eagle Couple of the Month.
Now for the next set of entrants, and it's a crowded field. We think this week's column sets a record for total number of Ivy League JDs. Here's our latest crop of outstanding newlyweds:
1. Deborah Adler and Brian Sutherland2. Rachel Hannaford and Justin Lerer
Read up on their pedigrees and passions, after the jump.
1. Deborah Adler and Brian Sutherland
(Buy them a soup bowl.)
The Case:
- His-'n'-hers JDs for this couple (HLS for Deborah, NYU for Brian). She went to Stanford undergrad; he went to the University of Iowa.
- Do we smell the sweet aroma of a federal appellate clerkship? We do indeed! Brian is currently clerking for Second Circuit judge (and judicial hottie) Reena Raggi. Deborah is a senior associate specializing in media litigation at Davis Wright Tremaine.
- Cute, non-annoying meeting story:
The couple met in July 2005, on a streetcar in San Francisco. Ms. Adler, late for work, nearly missed the car."I started to run for it, stopped, then made this mad dash across several lanes of traffic," she said. "The driver saw me and waited. I can't imagine how different my life would be right now if he hadn't."
The Case Against:
- Not a lot to carp on with this somewhat blah but unobjectionable pair.
2. Rachel Hannaford and Justin Lerer
(Buy them a 50-inch plasma television.)
The Case:
- More lawyer-on-lawyer action. This time, a double Harvard man reaches down to fondle the nether regions of the Ivy League, specifically U. Penn, where Rachel got her JD (she was magna at Duke for undergrad).
- Public servants! Rachel's a lawyer in the housing unit of South Brooklyn Legal Services. Justin was until recently an associate at Paul Weiss, but he left that cold-hearted, third-world-pillaging world; In June he'll be an assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.
The Case Against:
- The NYT dutifully informs us that Justin's new job is "pending clearance by the Justice Department." So if you've got the goods on him, speak up.
3. Zoe Segal-Reichlin and Daniel Garodnick
(Buy them a tea saucer.)
The Case:
- Yet another dual-JD couple. Zoe was magna at Brown and cum laude at HLS. Daniel was Dartmouth/U. Penn. (Four different Ivy League schools here -- we love it!) He also clerked for SDNY Judge Colleen McMahon, who married the couple.
- Zoe is an associate at Cleary Gottlieb and an adjunct professor at Georgetown (despite being only two years out of law school -- color us happy for Zoe but sad for Georgetown).
- As his hearty smile and pronounced chin indicate, Daniel is a politician -- specifically, a New York City councilman. Apparently this is a full-time gig.
The Case Against:
- Their first date was blind and took place the evening after Zoe had taken the bar exam. "I was so tired that I don't remember much about it," she says. That could be good or bad, actually.
4. Alison Franklin and Shane Milam
(Buy them a cheese board.)
The Case:
- Holy crap, do we really have eight lawyers in this column? Yes! And fully half of them are from U. Penn, which we understand has an awesome football team. Alison and Shane attended Princeton and Whitman College, respectively, and met as law students at Penn. Happy Valley, indeed!
The Case Against:
- Here's how they describe themselves on their wedding website:
Alison is a high powered corporate attorney in her second year at a large firm in Manhattan. Shane is a slightly less high powered tax attorney, who is also in his second year at a large firm in Manhattan.
We're not sure what's up with that. She's at Greenberg Traurig, and he's at Dewey & LeBoeuf, and to be honest, neither of them seems particularly high-powered. Maybe they like to role-play.
- Their shimmery, near-translucent whiteness underscores the tragic lack of diversity in this space recently. And we haven't seen any same-sex Legal Eagles in months! Here's hoping that the NYT will offer up some more colorful fare in the coming weeks.
The Verdict:
A tough contest this week, but ultimately Team Segal-Reichlin-Garodnick takes the crown, thanks to Zoe's hotness and Harvard law degree. Congratulations!
(52) 
That beard is just creepy.
Not surprisingly, all are pretty fugly.
"He was a law clerk to Judge McMahon in 2000 and 2001." In a wedding announcement in 2008? Seems a bit odd to include.
#3's drop dead gorgeous. Hats off to the guy for marrying her.
10:34: presumably he included it b/c she married them...
#3 is pretty hot, but I think #4 is hotter. But the stupid "high-powered" description on their website dooms them.
"Ms. Segal-Reichlin, 29, is keeping her name"
What would have been the protocol if she chose to hyphenate? Segal-Reichlin-Garodnick? Should the second hyphen be bolded or something to distinguish between her maiden and married name?
Fugly, 10:31? What's wrong w/ you: #4 is smoking
I'm actually digging #4's beard (and rapidly receding hairline). He probably gets mistaken for being a senior partner all the time.
Dartmouth people aren't allowed to marry non-Dartmouth people without a special dispensation. I hope Mr. Garodnick's papers are in order.
Giddy up http://www.shaneandalison.com/photo/2/2/6/3/226355/DBX51JN0MJ.jpg
thank you 10:57
Penn and Happy Valley? I have to believe Ms. Lin is too smart for that, so this must be an inside joke. Someone please esplain to those of us on the outside.
#1 is plenty hot. That guy did well for himself.
"Happy Valley" is Penn State not U. Penn.
Dude in number three will be having an affair with an intern within six months (if he isn't already). The Mrs. in number four is smoking.
Um, you do understand the difference between "adjunct" professors and "real" professors, right? Moot court directors get to call themselves "adjunct professor". It can be a meaningless title and is clearly not tenure track.
Besides, she's teaching a negotiations seminar--9 to 5 on Friday and Sunday--and not something most law professors know anything about.
1. all fugly
2. does every significant legal couple really include at least one Jewish person?
11:14 - I figured that part out on my own, but I suspect there's more to the story. Has the location of upenn been hotly debated in a prior thread?
Shane seriously lucked out. With that beard and specializing in tax, he's lucky he found anyone at all. Alison, give me a call. I'll show you high powered.
Hard to say on the Happy Valley comment. Could be sports idiocy (come on, she spends her time browsing the NYT marriage announcements and writing a "wedding competition" column - doesn't SOUND like the tomboy next door, eh?), but folks on ATL have been torturing Penn grads w/ mock confusion about it being Penn State for awhile.
I think the confusion springs from the fact that Worton is in Happy Valley.
I hate Friday's before holiday weekends--all the rubes post. Everyone KNOWS that UPenn Law School is a branch of Penn State (Go Nittany Lions) University and thus is beneath contempt.
Seriously, it's a running item on the comment threads to disparage Penn as false Ivy and link it to a state school. It's fed both by elitist running down of penn and the common mistake stupid people make in conflating the two.
re: "2. does every significant legal couple really include at least one Jewish person?"
Doesn't every NYT wedding announcement include either (1) at least one Jewish person or (2) at least one person decended from a member of the Social Register? It's called selection bias.
11:35 I think you mean Warden School
The non-Penn Ivies are just jealous because the Nittany Lions would stomp their flag footbal teams.
Wharton. Not Warden. Not Worton.
12:40, pretty sure it's Warden. kthxbi.
I second all comments relating to #3--she's law hot and he's likely already f'n around with an intern or staffer (it's just how they operate)--but can you imagine calling someone "Zoe" for the rest of your life? I dated one once and couldn't get over it. Sounds more like a cat name.
11:20, there's been long running anti-Penn snark in the comments threads along the lines that Penn = Penn State.
#2 look like bro & sis.
#3 look like daughter & dad.
#4 look like neice & uncle.
Brilliant, 1:23. I didn't notice, but looking back I don't know how I didn't.
1:10-i feel the same way about the name Kashmir.
1:23 - you are a gentleman and a scholar sir.
Went to undergrad with Deborah. Congrats to her.
Went to undergrad with Deborah. Congratulations to her.
I know Rachel and she is very pretty in person. The fugly comments about these couples is just unnecessary.
At Allison and her guy's wedding website, you can order pictures and things of them. Do you think it's weird that I'm having a magnet made of them from a Halloween party, that I am starting work at her firm in September in her department and that I never met them? Seriously, will this be something my superiors at Greenberg get weirded out by?
At Allison and her guy's wedding website, you can order pictures and things of them. Do you think it's weird that I'm having a magnet made of them from a Halloween party, that I am starting work at her firm in September in her department and that I never met them? Seriously, will this be something my superiors at Greenberg get weirded out by?
3:50 - not if they don't know about it. If people can manage to date other people at the office (cough summer associates cough) and not have anyone find out about it, you can manage to keep the magnet a secret.
Penn is DEFINITELY not in Happy Valley (that's Penn State). Having gone to one school (the Ivy League one) and grown up near the other, I can tell you that the two places are worlds apart.
5:32 drinks the koolaid.
5:32, we're actually talking about the law school, Wharton, which I'm fairly certain is in Happy Valley.
1 and 2 are pretty scary looking. 3 is alright. 4 is the cutest of the bunch, but certainly doesn't approach the term "hot."
#3 moves in high-powered circles: before dating (and marrying) the NY city councilman, she used to date a member of The Elect.
None of them are attractive -- particularly #3
None of them are attractive -- particularly #3
None of them are attractive -- particularly #3
The guy in #3 creeps me out. Is he wearing a toupee?
#3 is hot. #1 isn't bad for Harvard. But what's up with these mediocre undergrads going to T14 law schools?
Penn State Dickinson rose to 77 this year. Watch out, Penn.
Get the Pennsylvania schools straight. UPenn is in Philadelphia. It's the home of Wharton School of Business and its mascot is the Quaker. Penn State, home of the Nittany Lions, is in State College, PA and is the home of the Dickinson School of Law. The difference in the quality of their law schools is almost as big as the difference in the quality of thier football teams.
#3 is not hot at all. Maybe cute within the legal community, but take her out of the law firm, or law school environment and she is seriously average. And her guy has that fake politician smile.