Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: A More Perfect Union

Which of these three fabulous lawyer couples is our Couple of the Week?

Have you ever wondered how nerdy libertarian types get married? (No? Just us?) Depending on your jurisprudential leanings, you’ll be either moved, amused, or emotionally scarred by this wedding ceremony, which took place on the roof of the Cato Institute earlier this summer. Here’s the video. It gets a little weird when the groom whips out his pocket Constitution — he calls it “my Bible” — and vows to “faithfully execute the office of your husband.” (But keep watching for the bride’s vows, which are sweet and heartfelt.)

Another fun (non-lawyer) wedding write-up is this one, featuring the great-granddaughter of Maria and Captain Georg von Trapp, of The Sound of Music fame.

And now for our latest legal-eagle newlywed contestants:

Emily Chapuis and Amanda Shanor

Misty Wright and Robert Yoskowitz

Alicia Beyer and David Zeman

Read on for an in-depth examination of these fabulous couples.

Emily Chapuis and Amanda Shanor
(Buy them a champagne flute.)
The Case:
– Our first set of newlyweds became a couple at Yale Law School, from which they both graduated. Amanda (on the right) was cum laude at Yale College; Emily was summa at Tulane.
– Two brides, two wedding ceremonies: The first was performed by a rabbi in Washington, and the second was a nondenominational ceremony in St. Louis.

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The Case Against:
– Emily is gainfully — painfully? — employed as an associate in Jenner & Block’s DC office. Amanda appears to be going the cushier-but-less-lucrative route toward academia, having just finished a clerkship for DC Circuit Judge Judith Rogers. She also recently co-authored a casebook with her law-prof dad, who’s totally not worried that the government is spying on him.

Misty Wright and Robert Yoskowitz
(Buy them a vacuum cleaner.)
The Case:
– Another romance sparked in the tinder box of law school. This time it was Harvard, from which both the bride and groom received JDs. She was magna at Yale undergrad; he went to Haverford.
– We adore their eyebrows-aligned yet joy-filled photo, probably because it was taken by one of our favorite wedding photographers ever. Here’s a fun candid shot from Misty and Rob’s reception (check out the sassy red poppy in Misty’s hair).

The Case Against:
– The lovebirds will soon be flying in different directions, as Misty will spend the next year clerking for U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II in Louisville while Rob toils far away in Cooley’s San Francisco office. Boo. No doubt they’ll live under the same roof post-clerkship (but probably not in Kentucky).

Alicia Beyer and David Zeman
(Buy them a relish dish.)
The Case:
– Which one of these people looks like a Skadden associate? Obviously the groom. Those eyebrows say “future tax partner.” But no, it’s the sweet-faced bride who’s about to surrender her life to the storied firm. She’ll be joining its Chicago office next month.
– She graduated from Harvard, magna, and has a JD from Columbia. He’s a graduate of the University of Iowa with a master’s in engineering management from Northwestern.

The Case Against:
– These days, basically every couple in the NYT gets married by a rabbi or a family member ordained as a Universal Life minister for the occasion. So we did a double-take when we read that Team Beyer-Zeman was married by an Episcopal priest. Nothing against Episcopalianism, of course. If you’re into that sort of thing.

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The Verdict:
We’re constitutionally required to award this edition’s top honors to the same-sex couple with Yale degrees, so congratulations to Team Chapuis-Shanor! But in our book, all three of these pairs are winners. We wish the very best in life to all our newlyweds.

Honorable Mention:
Kaitlyn Storey and Michael Philips (Fordham)
Caitlin Powell and Nathan Gimpel (2, U of Chicago, Kirkland)
Elizabeth Bierut and Francis Marisco III (2, Fordham)
Alexandra Helprin and Swift Edgar (Columbia)

The Rest:
Sarah Aldrich and Gerald Giaimo (UConn)
Sarah Kaminetsky and Isaac Jonas (Fordham)
Sarah Agor and Lane Nussbaum (Michigan)
Margot Hill and Colin Kirby (Notre Dame)
Jessica Barrineau and Raymond Carta (UConn)
Danielle Inwald and Asaf Sarno (Florida State)
Jessica Goldberg and Michael Shearer (Harvard)
Drew Carver-Peterson and Zachary Fein (U of Denver)
Krysta Markus and Vincent Ku (2, University of Miami)
Jacqueline Powers and Michael Lueptow (2, George Washington U)
Katherine Lihn and Christian Blum (Fordham)
Shelley Hoffman and Robert Greebel (Michigan)
Jessica Barrett and Alexander Zwillinger (Hofstra)
Jessica Ketevecs and Ted Sichelman (Harvard)
Gwénolée Calvier and Joseph Kelley (2, University of Montpellier, Seton Hall)
Wendy Link and Yuval Simchi-Levi (Cardozo)
Anne Marie Wyks and Russell Spiegel (Brooklyn)
Rachel Weitzner and Philip Ellenbogen (Columbia)
Jennifer Goyne and Peter Blake (Harvard)
Beth Barnosky and Kevin Amendt (Suffolk)
Elizabeth Hunt and Brian Murray (St. John’s)