Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 1.18: We LoVermont!

Last weekend, while most of you were lining up for the Inauguration, a few oddballs were elsewhere, engaging in nuptial activities. Obviously, pretty much every superstar lawyer in the country was preparing to report for duty in the incoming administration, so we must warn you that this week’s wedding announcements are a little short on prestige. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t lots of weirdness and dysfunction to mull over.

Here are this week’s finalists:

1. Rachel Natelson and Seth Fogelman

2. Courtney Shea and Stephen Ball Jr.

3. Elyssa Sims and Vincent Dunleavy

More about these newlyweds, after the jump.


1. Rachel Natelson and Seth Fogelman

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The Case:

– More-than-decent educational credentials: The bride was magna at Yale and has a JD from NYU; the groom attended Cornell and has a master’s from Hunter College.

– She works for some public interest group whose name is too long and boring to print; he schleps artwork around for the Whitney Museum.

The Case Against:

Their video. First, we’re treated to a grating piece of more-intellectual-than-thou book club snobbery from the simpering bride. Then we get an account of how much they fight. Simply wretched.

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2. Courtney Shea and Stephen Ball Jr.

(Buy them a mini-chopper.)

The Case:

– Their picture presents them as friendly and normal, and there’s no video to make us hate them.

– The bride, who attended Georgetown and has a master’s from Boston College, is an editorial assistant at a media company. The groom is an associate at Burns & Levinson in Boston.

The Case Against:

– The groom’s credentials (Vermont/Vermont Law School) are a tad weaker than the ones we typically fawn over. And yet there’s something unpretentious about the Vermont stuff, as if maybe the guy just likes Vermont and didn’t feel like going to, say, Penn. Weirdly refreshing.

3. Elyssa Sims and Vincent Dunleavy

(Buy them a blender.)

The Case:

– The bride has an undergraduate degree from UCLA and a JD from New York Law School. The groom, who works at Entertainment Weekly, went to SUNY-Buffalo and has a master’s from Ohio State.

The Case Against:

– “The bride, 28, is a law clerk for Presiding Judge Michael K. Diamond of the family division of Passaic County Superior Court in Paterson, N.J.” That sentence makes our soul hurt.

The Verdict:

If it weren’t for that execrable video, we’d probably be awarding the prize to Team Puppy-Slobber, based merely on the superficial appeal of Yale/NYU. But now . . . our hearts are with the unpretentious, Vermont-loving, Team Shea-Ball. Congratulations!