New York Times, UVA Law, Weddings

Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 3.1: Love, Sweet Love

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Marking a new low for the legal industry, there was only one practicing lawyer in the NYT weddings section this week. We were able to round out our contestant list with a 3L and a non-practicing JD, but LEWW remains alarmed about this decline in our profession’s visibility. We hope there is no truth to the rumor that couples are staying out of the NYT to avoid exposure on ATL. If that’s the case, we may have to cast a wider net for material — in fact, many commenters have suggested we do just that. We’ll keep you posted.

Here are the three finalist couples:

1. Christie Love and J. Lee Hill Jr.

2. Kathryn Fleming and Garrett Ederle

3. Monica Lesmerises and John Leibovitz

Get the scoop on these newlyweds, after the jump.


1. Christie Love and J. Lee Hill Jr.

Sponsored

(Buy them a corkscrew.)

The Case:

– This couple’s write-up occupies the Vows column spot this week, so it’s long on cutesy anecdotes and short on resume details. We do learn that the bride, a staff lawyer at Advocates for Children in New York, is “Columbia-educated.”

– The groom is a Baptist minister; his bio appears on his church’s website and includes degrees from George Mason and Wake Forest Divinity School.

The Case Against:

Sponsored

– They both chose their career paths at a young age. In the groom’s case, that meant “giving sermons to neighborhood children when he was 9,” which is super-cute. The bride “was still in elementary school when she made up her mind to be a lawyer in New York,” which seems less cute and more sad.

2. Kathryn Fleming and Garrett Ederle

(Buy them a candlestick.)

The Case:

– Both halves of this couple have degrees from the University of Florida, but they started dating as graduate students at the superior-in-everything-but-sports University of Virginia, he in business and she in law.

– He has a job managing real estate assets in Atlanta, and she has at least the promise of a job at Kilpatrick Stockton this fall (for what that’s worth).

The Case Against:

– Their website informs us that the bride “enjoys shopping,” neatly conveying a picture of shallow, vapid materialism in an efficient two words.

3. Monica Lesmerises and John Leibovitz

(Buy them a hand towel.)

The Case:

– These two have excellent educational credentials: an undergraduate degree from Yale for the bride, and degrees from Penn (undergrad, summa), Cambridge (master’s), and Yale (JD) for the groom.

– Monica, who has worked on campaigns for Jon Corzine and Richard Gephardt, is now director for community development at a hospital in New Jersey. John was until last month a staff member of the Obama-Biden transition team.

The Case Against:

– John’s current employment status is unclear, but whatever he’s up to, it’s probably safe to assume that this legal-eagle couple lacks a real lawyer.

– No picture, but you can click here to see their Obama-fied portrait. Wow, so original.

The Verdict:

Team Lesmerises-Leibovitz undoubtedly brings the strongest verified educational credentials to this week’s contest. But we really like Team Love-Hill, and the fact that the bride is a practicing lawyer is enough, we think, to give them the edge. Congratulations, newlyweds!

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