Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 5.31: Canon-Baller

We were dying to write about this wedding announcement, featuring a slutty Strawberry Shortcake costume (WTF?) and a wacky/tacky proposal story. But alas, commenters would have crucified us for elevating comedic potential over excellence.
So behold, this week’s finalists. They include five Harvard degrees, five Yale degrees, and OMGOMGOMG the best Article III officiant ever. Enjoy.

1. Jessica Richman and Matthew Smith
2. Jessica Hertz and Christopher Angell
3. Ashley Lynn and Kenneth Leonczyk Jr.

The scoop on these legal-eagle weddings, after the jump.


1. Jessica Richman and Matthew Smith
(Buy them a salad plate.)
The Case:
– This bride graduated summa from Harvard and naturally stuck around Cambridge for a JD. Formerly at Cravath, she’s now an associate at Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman in New York.
– The groom also has a undergraduate degree from Harvard, but unlike his bride, he did not graduate summa and had to go slumming at Columbia for his law degree. Happily, he too ended up at Cravath, where he remains.
– This photo of the bride (taken from her firm’s website) should hang in a museum somewhere; we’re captivated by it. The overall effect is completely work-appropriate, yet undeniably sexual at the same time. Jessica’s Mona Lisa smile is both steely and sultry, hinting at passions that extend well beyond client advocacy. H-O-T.
The Case Against:
– We don’t have a picture of Matthew, and we blame it on Cravath’s lame website. Cravath associates might as well be paralegals for all the attention the firm’s marketing department gives their bios.

2. Jessica Hertz and Christopher Angell
(Buy them a candleholder.)
The Case:
– Jessica and Christoper met as undergraduates at Harvard (she was cum laude; he was magna), and they’re both pursuing legal careers. She has a JD from the University of Chicago; he’s working on one from Columbia, plus a master’s from Johns Hopkins.
– The bride is a special assistant at OMB, and the groom is summering at Covington & Burling.
– Article III officiant alert! This wedding ceremony was presided over by not one, but two divas of the federal judiciary: Judge Barbara S. Jones of SDNY and . . . drumroll . . . Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit, soon to be reigning o’er us on the Supreme Court.
(This is not the first wedding that Judges Jones and Sotomayor have attended together. See Underneath Their Robes.)
The Case Against:
– No word on what trinket Judge Sotomayor gave the couple, but we know that neither of their $235 candleholders are on her credit card bill. A wise Latina, with the richness of her experience, does not buy overpriced wedding baubles for ex-clerks.
3. Ashley Lynn and Kenneth Leonczyk Jr.
(Buy them a gravy ladle.)
The Case:
– Our first two weddings were Harvard-heavy. Our third takes us down I-84 to New Haven, which is where this bride and groom met as law students at Yale (Ken just graduated; Ashley’s a 3L). Ashley also did her undergraduate work at Yale, and Ken earned a master’s in religion and a certificate in Anglican studies from Yale after getting his undergraduate degree from the University of the South.
– Ken is a real, live Episcopal priest who is “also the canon theologian to the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kadugli Nuba Mountains in Sudan.” And how will he be serving the Lord and the people of Sudan? By going to work for Covington & Burling, of course! He’ll start in September. Ashley’s summering at Debevoise.
The Case Against:
– Episcopalians aren’t known for their ascetic, possession-renouncing lifestyles. We get that. But is it seemly for a priest — nay, a canon — to be asking his wedding guests for $1,610 fish platters and $350 meat forks? How many Sudanese kids could that fish platter feed and clothe?
The Verdict:
Team Hertz-Angell doesn’t have the blingiest educational credentials this week. The bride, while attractive and well-scrubbed, lacks the buttoned-up-naughty appeal of the other Jessica. But Team Hertz-Angell was in the right place at the right time. They had the legal establishment’s hottest celebrity officiate their wedding less than a week after her nomination to the Supreme Court. And that, legal-eagle wedding watchers, is what we call a coup. Congratulations!

Sponsored