Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 9.7: No Ordinary Love


For the commenters who yearn to see more “ordinary” couples in the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, we commend this pair to your attention. The groom is a radio personality, and the bride has a JD from Loyola. They seem likable and . . . ordinary. Is this the type of couple our readership craves? Should we devote one slot a week to a Tier-II couple? Designate one column a month as Ordinary Week? Please advise. (This is actually a serious question. LEWW recognizes that we can’t satisfy everyone, but we do aim to please.)
For now, we’ll to continue to celebrate the extraordinary. Our finalist couples have degrees from Harvard, Yale, NYU, Chicago, and other elite schools, some with athletic programs. All three brides toil in Manhattan law firms, and all three grooms serve humanity in important-sounding public-sector jobs. Here they are:

1. Jessica Buturla and Caswell Holloway IV
2. Sarah McDonald and Patrick Egan
3. Johanna Greenbaum and David Newman

More on the couples below, including photos.



1. Jessica Buturla and Caswell Holloway IV
(Buy them a dinner plate.)
The Case:
– Strong, diverse educational background for this two-lawyer couple. Jessica is Yale/NYU; Cas is Harvard/Chicago.
– Equally impressive jobs! Cas is a special assistant to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (read his testimony before a House subcommittee on a 9/11 compensation act here), while Jessica keeps food on the table as an associate at ultra-prestigious Cravath. LEWW really likes the mating of gritty government insider with slick corporate shark; we predict big things for these two.
– Their officiant was Second Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs, for whom Cas clerked. In addition to being LEWW’s favorite kind of officiant, (the Article III kind), Judge Jacobs is the author of a memorable benchslapping dissent (in which he proudly acknowledged not having read the majority opinion!).
The Case Against:
– The photo at right obviously depicts too much joy, spontaneity, and cleavage to be the official NYT shot. The Gray Lady has been making LEWW’s job harder of late by withholding many of the couples’ photos from the online write-ups. We may have to break down and buy a Sunday subscription, but for now we appreciate the shots submitted by our couples’ frenemies. Keep ’em coming!

2. Sarah McDonald and Patrick Egan
(Buy them a down pillow.)
The Case:
Sarah and Patrick have much in common with the contestants above, starting with strong educational credentials that combine Ivy cache with a touch of newer-school swagger. He went to Yale and she went to Stanford; they met in law school at the University of Michigan.
– The similarities continue: Patrick serves New York as an assistant district attorney; Sarah is an associate at Davis Polk.
– Impressive parental credentials — and on both sides, which is fairly rare. Sarah’s dad is a former chairman of Price Waterhouse. Patrick’s mother is a former managing partner of Edwards & Angell’s New York office, and his father is a senior VP at JPMorgan Chase.
The Case Against:
– After remarking yesterday on the ubiquity of rabbis in our wedding coverage, we took one look at the names on these two and assumed that this, at least, was one wedding where Hava Nagila went unsung. Wrong! Sarah McDonald and Patrick Brendan Robert Egan were, in fact, married by Rabbi Richard S. Chapin. Love it. Mazel tov!

3. Johanna Greenbaum and David Newman
(Buy them a springform pan.)
The Case:
– Another two-lawyer pair caps off a strong week. Joanna and David met as undergrads at Harvard. She was magna and he was only cum laude, but he was the one who stuck around to attend HLS, while she got her JD from Georgetown.
– Joanna is an associate at Kramer Levin. David, having just completed a Second Circuit clerkship (Amalya Kearse), is dropping down a level to clerk for Judge Kenneth M. Karas of SDNY.
– David’s father is the CFO of both the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and Peterson Management. The former seeks to raise public awareness of the national debt and other fiscal issues; the latter “oversees the Peterson family’s finances.” Peter G. Peterson is the Senior Chairman of the Blackstone Group and has a net worth of $2.5 billion.
The Case Against:
– The groom’s father is named Paul Newman, resulting in a predictable celebrity mis-link from the NYT’s automatic link generator. Does anyone edit these articles?
The Verdict:
Thanks to Cravath and Judge Jacobs, Team Buturla-Holloway narrowly edges out the other two entries. Congratulations, newlyweds!

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