Add RSS RSS

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 5.18 and 5.25: Love on an Escalator

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 1:20 PM - By Laurie Lin

Legal%20Eagle%20Wedding%20Watch%20NYT%20wedding%20announcements%20Above%20the%20Law.jpgWe’re eagerly awaiting the end of the Supreme Court’s 2007-2008 Term — not because of all the sexy end-of-Term opinions, but because we’re hoping the SCOTUS clerk nuptial action will pick up! It’s been far too long since one of the Elect has graced this space. We haven’t even seen a truly top-grade circuit clerkship in a while.

So finish up those sexy opinions, SCOTUS clerks, and then get to work penning your bragadocious NYT wedding announcements! Until then, here are this week’s outstanding finalists:

1. Kimberly Wilson and Michael Portnoy

2. Noraan Sadik and Stephen Haskins

3. Maya Stowe and Daniel Silver

4. Alyssa Saunders and Eric Trager

5. Kristin Silverberg and Paul Lettow

Read all about these newlyweds, after the jump.

Wilson-Portnoy.jpg1. Kimberly Wilson and Michael Portnoy
(Buy them a $1,499 rug.)
The Case:
- Seasoned lawyer marries law student: Michael (Brown/BU) is a senior lawyer with Coventry Health Care, and Kimberly is a 3L at American (U Mass undergrad).
- Normally the educational credentials above wouldn’t be enough to merit LEWW consideration, but the story of how they met has a strong legal angle. It happened on the DC Metro:

She said: “I was coming back from class, and he saw me holding a law book, and that sparked our conversation. I’ve never spoken to anyone on the Metro before, but I had no hesitancy about talking to him.”

“I don’t speak to anyone on the Metro either,” Mr. Portnoy said, “but something was different about her. I got very nervous. I needed to talk to her or I knew I was going to regret not having tried.”

Mr. Portnoy noticed that her law book was one of the ones he had studied in law school, and used that to start the conversation. He asked her about her studies. “I liked him immediately,” she said.

He then exited the Metro with her, three stops before his intended destination. Kimberly eventually got over the creepiness of it all.

The Case Against:
- After taking Kimberly on a surprise trip to Paris, Michael proposed at the Pont des Arts because he “didn’t want the cliché of the Eiffel Tower.” To us, this seems a bit like proposing at a baseball game, but having the JumboTron read “Yo, shorty — marry me,” because, you know, God forbid the situation be clichéd in any way.

Sadik-Haskins.jpg
2. Noraan Sadik and Stephen Haskins
(Buy them a knife block.)

The Case:
- Stronger educational cred here. Noraan, an associate at Latham’s New York office, was cum laude at U Penn and got her JD from Stanford. (We had her schools reversed initially; thanks to a commenter for pointing out our mistake.) Stephen went to Yale and medical school at NYU. He’s set to begin a residency in anesthesiology at Cornell.
- Noraan, it need hardly be said, is gorgeous, and Stephen is attractive enough that he won’t be “that guy with the wife who’s way too hot for him.” We like how each half of this couple looks like Barack Obama. They’re probably big supporters.

The Case Against:
- Honestly, we’re at a loss. They seem thoroughly classy and likeable.

Stowe-Silver.jpg3. Maya Stowe and Daniel Silver
(Buy them a cookie sheet.)

The Case:
- This bride (a Reese Witherspoon lookalike, no?) was magna at Brown and just received a medical degree from Columbia. She’s about to begin a residency in psychiatry at Cornell.
- Daniel also went to Brown and got a JD, magna cum laude, from NYU. He’s an AUSA in the Eastern District of New York.
- The father of the groom is a justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court

The Case Against:
- The wedding took place at Deerpark Restaurant at Biltmore Estate in Asheville. LEWW has actually eaten at this restaurant. It is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Enough said.


Saunders-Trager.jpg4. Alyssa Saunders and Eric Trager
(Buy them a salad plate.)

The Case:
- You had us at “They met at Harvard.” They were both cum laude there, and Alyssa has a JD from HLS. She’ll start at Dechert in September. Eric was a Fulbright fellow and is now studying for a doctorate in political science at Penn.

The Case Against:
- The bride’s middle name is Tami. We were appalled to learn that nearly 500 of every million babies born in the 1960s were similarly cursed.

Silverberg-Lettow.jpg5. Kristin Silverberg and Paul Lettow
(Buy them a tablecloth.)
The Case:
- The bride and groom are both lawyers who’ve moved on to more interesting things. Kristen (Harvard/UT) has been deputy assistant to President Bush for domestic policy and a senior advisor in Baghdad to Paul Bremer. She’s now assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs at the State Department.
- Paul was summa at Princeton. He went on to earn a doctorate in international relations from Oxford and a law degree from Harvard. He now works at the White House on the staff of the National Security Council.
- The groom is the author of Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, about which an Amazon reviewer commented “That Reagan was a persistent cuss … and so was this author.” He gave it four stars.
- Another judicial FOTG! Paul’s dad is Charles F. Lettow, who sits on the Court of Federal Claims.

The Case Against:
- A six-year age disparity (she’s 37; he’s 31) isn’t exactly May-December. More like May-early-August. But whatever — it costs them a few points. Better hurry up and squeeze out those GOP Mini-Me’s!

The Verdict:
This one is tough. Our heart says Team Sadik-Haskins, but they’re up against some two-JD competition, including one team with Harvard-Princeton-Oxford-Harvard in its write-up. So with some hesitation, we’re awarding the crown this week to the double-JD (albeit non-practicing), Bush-loving, Team Silverberg-Lettow. Heckuva job, you two!

(87) Comments
Posted in: Dechert, Harvard, Harvard Law School, Latham & Watkins, New York Times, Weddings

Comments

Comments hidden for your protection. Show them anyway!

Post Your Comment