As promised, we're back with our second installment of LEWW this week. We think you'll agree that this one features some of our finest contestants of the season. A SCOTUS clerkship (finally!), a Rhodes, more YLS grads -- enjoy this special Independence Day edition of the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch!

Here are the names:

1. Stephanie Denton and Zeno Baucus

2. Mary Fan and Dean Kawamoto

3. Emma Terrell and Trevor Leitch

4. Courtenay Van Sciver and Peter Washkowitz

5. Maria Glover and Derek Ho

Click on the "continue reading" link below to see these couples' photos and sparkly credentials.

It didn't make our final four. But this wedding announcement, featuring an heir to the great Swingline Stapler fortune, gives us an opportunity to note that there is -- who knew? -- more than one way to staple something.

We recently learned that you can rotate a plate on the bottom half of your stapler, thereby causing the hammer to press the staple out instead of in and "pinning" the document together temporarily. Minutes of fun, people!

Back to business. Here are this week's newlywed entrants:

1. Alyson Evans and James Beha II

2. Jennifer Brosnahan and Kevin McIntyre

3. Kristen Eichensehr and Richard Ré

4. Amanda Kosonen and David Schleicher

Read up on these fabulous contestants, after the jump.

A commenter recently noted that "[t]he LEWW posts are marked with a logo to make it easy to avoid them." Ouch! In fairness, we note that the same commenter also called us "one [of] the best, funniest, most well-written features on ATL" (thanks!). Whether the sight of the LEWW logo makes your heart sing or sink, the please note that the logo has changed to something a bit more festive.

In other business, we certainly made the right call when we decided to include an extra couple in May's Couple of the Month poll! The "write-in" candidates were your favorites by far, running away with over 60 percent of the vote.

Congratulations to Noraan Sadik and Stephen Haskins, ATL's Legal-Eagle Couple of the Month for May 2008!

We caught up on our wedding-watching backlog this weekend, so stay tuned, LEWW lovers. There's more coming this week, and it includes some of our readers' favorite acronyms.

Cheers!

We're eagerly awaiting the end of the Supreme Court's 2007-2008 Term -- not because of all the sexy end-of-Term opinions, but because we're hoping the SCOTUS clerk nuptial action will pick up! It's been far too long since one of the Elect has graced this space. We haven't even seen a truly top-grade circuit clerkship in a while.

So finish up those sexy opinions, SCOTUS clerks, and then get to work penning your bragadocious NYT wedding announcements! Until then, here are this week's outstanding finalists:

1. Kimberly Wilson and Michael Portnoy

2. Noraan Sadik and Stephen Haskins

3. Maya Stowe and Daniel Silver

4. Alyssa Saunders and Eric Trager

5. Kristin Silverberg and Paul Lettow

Read all about these newlyweds, after the jump.

Congratulations to Keira Driansky and David Simon, chosen by ATL readers over Kristy Hong and Jonas Blank III as April's Legal Eagle Couple of the Month.

Now for the next set of entrants, and it's a crowded field. We think this week's column sets a record for total number of Ivy League JDs. Here's our latest crop of outstanding newlyweds:

1. Deborah Adler and Brian Sutherland

2. Rachel Hannaford and Justin Lerer

3. Zoe Segal-Reichlin and Daniel Garodnick

4. Alison Franklin and Shane Milam

Read up on their pedigrees and passions, after the jump.

Adam Liptak is the national legal reporter for New York Times, though he'll soon be taking over the Supreme Court beat from Linda Greenhouse.

Liptak's answering questions from readers this week, so the NYTimes has a feature on him:

He first joined The Times as a copyboy in 1984, after graduation from Yale University, where he was an editor of The Yale Daily News Magazine, with a degree in English. In addition to clerical work and fetching coffee, he assisted the reporter M.A. Farber in covering the trial of a libel suit brought by Gen. William Westmoreland against CBS.

Mr. Liptak returned to Yale for a law degree, graduating in 1988. During law school, he worked as a summer clerk in the The New York Times Company's legal department. After graduating, he spent four years at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, a New York City law firm, as a litigation associate specializing in First Amendment matters.

In 1992, he returned to The Times's legal department, spending a decade advising The Times and the company's other newspapers, television stations and new media properties on defamation, privacy, newsgathering and related issues, and he frequently litigated media and commercial cases.

In 2002, Liptak gave into the writing itch and joined the news staff. For those of you aspiring to make the jump from law to journalism, you can draw inspiration from Liptak's interesting career path.

The Times readers have lots of serious questions for Liptak, about the SCOTUS voter id ruling, the death penalty, the question of balance, etc. No gossipy questions about Biglaw vs Bigmedia salaries, or filling Linda Greenhouse's heels. Oh well, there are two days of questions left...

Talk to the Newsroom: Adam Liptak, National Legal Reporter [New York Times]

Is anyone else sick of LEWW's logo? We've grown weary of the weird paper-doll figures holding hands -- they just don't say "celebration" to us.

So we're asking our readers to help us pick a new visual for Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. Some of you had gripes about ATL's new design -- here's your chance to put your stamp on a small corner of the site. Your submission can be a photo (an artistic detail shot from your own wedding, perhaps?) or a graphic of your own design. An allusion to the law would be a plus, but the most important thing is that the image convey the theme of impressive people getting married. (And, of course, it must not be an image that's copyrighted by someone else.)

Send us your entries (please e-mail them here and not to ATL's tips line). We'll pick our favorite and give you a big shout-out and heaps of gratitude for perking up this space.

And now, on to this week's finalists:

1.) Suzanne deVries and Adam Decker

2.) Kristy Hong, Jonas Blank III

3.) Elena Klau and Chad Silverman

4.) Natalie MacLean, Russell Leino

More about these candidates, after the jump.

We don't want to ruin any surprises, but we've got some high-quality material for you this week at Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. There may even be a sparkly credential or two that we haven't seen in this space in a while. (Cough -- Rhodes -- cough.)

Behold, our outstanding finalists:

1.) Keira Driansky and David Simon

2.) Maya Nath and Benjamin Curtis

3.) Alexa Davidson and Marc Suskin

4.) Francesca Harper and Eric Cohen

More about our featured couples, after the jump.

For LEWW, one of the best things about spring is the return of a reliable stream of lawyer-lawyer couples to the NYT wedding pages. Soon we'll even be seeing SCOTUS clerks! This week five out of our six newlyweds sports a JD. Here they are:

1.) Michelle Lieberman and Daniel Lubetzky

2.) Michelle Davidowitz and Jed Schwartz

3.) Jessica Zeldin and Johnston Whitman Jr.

More about our finalists, after the jump.

Spring! Cherry blossoms, opening day, and pedigreed lawyers uniting in marriage. We're pleased to be back with another installment of Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, featuring these three impressive couples:

1.) Susannah Foster and Kenyon Weaver

2.) Kathleen DeLaney and Courtney Thomas

3.) Heath Kern and Joseph Gibson

More on our finalists, after the jump.

We already discussed this news yesterday. But in our earlier post, we promised to let you know if and when Linda Greenhouse got back to us -- and she kindly did, sending the following message to ATL about her rumored departure as the New York Times's Supreme Court correspondent:

As you may know - the Times put a newsroom-wide buyout package on the table last week, in an effort to shrink the staff by 100. For someone of my seniority (40 years) the terms are very attractive, and I've told my bureau chief that I plan to take it. I was planning to retire in a few years, and giving up this package would have basically meant working for free - which seemed foolish, much as I love my job. I plan to keep writing about the court in various forums.

(I should note that this is not official, because the buyout window is open until March 5, after which the Times will respond to the individual volunteers - so my response to you is based on the assumption that my acceptance of their offer will in turn be accepted.)

Greenhouse also confirmed her move to the Associated Press (via WSJ Law Blog).

During her 30 years covering the Court for the Times, Linda Greenhouse has sometimes been controversial. See here, here, and here, for perhaps the most recent controversy.

It cannot be denied, however, that Greenhouse has tremendous knowledge of the Supreme Court's history and inner workings, as well as unparalleled access to the justices themselves. Few journalists are such superstars that their comings and goings are covered by the AP.

Greenhouse leaves big shoes to fill, and it will be interesting to see how her successor fares. How much of her clout was the institutional clout of the New York Times, and how much of it was Greenhouse qua Greenhouse? We'll find out soon enough.

Feel free to speculate about replacements for the legendary Linda Greenhouse, in the comments.

NYT's Greenhouse Takes Buyout Offer [Associated Press via WSJ Law Blog]
Public and Private Lives, Intersecting [New York Times]
Lay Off Linda [Slate]
Far From Sober [National Review Online]

Earlier: Is the Margo Channing of One First Street Taking Her Final Bow?

We have previously compared Linda Greenhouse, the veteran Supreme Court correspondent of the New York Times, to Margo Channing, the great but aging diva of All About Eve. The comparison continues to hold.

Just as Margo Channing eventually leaves the thea-tuh, so too does Linda Greenhouse leave the SCOTUS. Ed Whelan, the former Scalia clerk with lots of Court connections, has this report over at Bench Memos:

According to a well-placed Supreme Court source, New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse is telling folks at the Court that she has accepted a Times buyout package and will be ending her coverage of the Court at the end of the current term.

So that's the word on One First Street. We have reached out to Linda Greenhouse for comment and will let you know if and when we hear back from her.

If this is true -- and we have no reason to doubt it, since it comes from the well-connected Whelan -- then Jan Crawford Greenburg is one step closer to being Queen Bee of the Supreme Court press corps. Nina Totenberg, watch your back!

Update: More from Ed Whelan at NRO Online: "On the same day that we learn of Linda Greenhouse’s imminent departure from the New York Times, Greenhouse provides further evidence of her bias...."

Greenhouse's Departure [Bench Memos / National Review Online]
Re: Breyer’s and Souter’s Drift to the Right? [Bench Memos / National Review Online]

Earlier: All About... Jan?

We're back with another installment of the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch, where we weigh the relative prestige and fabulosity of the newlywed lawyers who are brave enough to splash their happy news across the pages of the New York Times.

Here are the latest LEWW hopefuls:

1.) Mindy Jaffe and Per Chilstrom

2.) Jennifer Abrams and David Stier

3.) Christine Pelosi and Peter Kaufman

More about these couples, after the jump.

* The NYT's official statement on L'Affaire Berenson. [Starkman & Associates]

* A slew of law school hypotheticals about sex with and between minors, triggered by Carl Stanley McGee, our Lawyer of the Day. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Second runner-up for Lawyer of the Day? And a punitive damages award of $33 million. Ouch. [How Appealing]

* Man saves dog; law student saves man. Congratulations to GW's Jason Coates, our Law Student of the Day! [GW Hatchet]

* "Derek Jeter has romanced Mariah Carey, squired Jessica Biel, sweet-talked Scarlett Johansson -- and now he's made it to first base with the state taxman." [TaxProf Blog]

* Wow, this is wild. Has Gary Crossen, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Foley Hoag, read too many John Grisham novels? [WSJ Law Blog]

* Speaking of white-collar criminal defense lawyers, more business may be headed their way, courtesy of Andrew Cuomo. [DealBreaker]

* You've got... male? [Reuters]

* Are you a Disgruntled Republican? Join the club -- or buy a mug. [Zazzle]

Yes, LEWW hears the howls of protest from our readers about the weeks we skipped recently. We'll do a makeup post soon, we promise. The weddings pages have been such a wasteland lately that it's been hard to pull together the kind of legal and nuptial excellence you've come to expect here. And it's crushing our spirit.

Take this week. The NYT featured just seven weddings total, with only two LEWW contenders and one Ivy degree (from U. Penn). Here are the two finalists:

1.) Robin Rosenthal and Richard Rothfeld

2.) Erin Conroy and Thomas Welling Jr.

More about these newlyweds, after the jump.

* NFL Union president prepared for strike. [ESPN]

* Microsoft offers to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion to compete with Google. [MSNBC]

* Times reporter subpoenaed over "State of War" source. [New York Times]

* French President and supermodel girlfriend sue over pictures. [Washington Post via WSJ Law Blog]

* HLS grad Obama and YLS grad Clinton make nice, sort of, during debate. [MSNBC]

* SCOTUS stays Alabama execution, maintaining de facto moratorium on death penalty. [CNN]

* Roy Tolles and Arthur Kramer, of Munger Tolles and Kramer Levin, respectively, RIP. [WSJ Law Blog]

Our favorite bride this week is one we don't get to write about. Rachel Berkowitz is a professional organizer who "helps individuals and businesses to organize closets, filing systems and offices and to move and pack." And if you're not a little bit turned on by that, we want to see your underwear drawer.

On the legal-eagle front, three Fordham JDs (at least) and a Sunday school teacher make this our first Catholic-themed week here at LEWW.

The contenders:

1. Sandra Zucker and Joshua Bennett

2. Mari-Claudia Jiménez and Steven Coffey

3. Laura Brown and Brian Vogt

More about these couples, after the jump.

Yes, we did see Lisa Belkin's "Life's Work" column in yesterday's New York Times, entitled "Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms." Truth be told, we didn't find it terribly exciting, since most of the law-firm lifestyle improvements she mentions are ones that are familiar to ATL readers. We also shared the reaction of the WSJ Law Blog, which found it sort of random for Thursday Styles: "Since when did the NYT Styles section become a legal trade?"

But since the article has zoomed to the top of the NYT Most Emailed Articles list, with which we are obsessed, we're compelled to write about it. Excerpts and discussion, after the jump.

The Legal Eagle Wedding Watch is kicking off 2008 with a few leftovers from 2007. But we think you'll agree that these offerings are worth savoring. These couples have got a little bit of everything: brains, looks, athletic ability, and (something that never goes stale) lots and lots of money.

Here are the contenders:

1.) Ellen Zajac and Teddy Schwarzman

2.) Stephanie Alperin and Eric Biderman

3.) Erica Greenbaum and Mark Gerson

4.) Katherine Van Loon and Jon Steitz

More about these couples, after the jump.

Yes, yes, LEWW has been a tad neglectful of our wedding-watching duties. Our full-time job has been, well -- full-time. And then there are all our fabulous society engagements.

Anyway, let's face it: High wedding season ended in mid-October. You know people aren't focusing on weddings when the Times hauls out the perennial "Is the Bride Changing her Name?" article. Yawn. But fear not -- while you're focusing on Christmas shopping and year-end bonuses, LEWW will be watching the weddings.

And here's the latest bunch:

1.) Matthew Morningstar and Alan Van Capelle

2.) Elizabeth Hack and Richard Larach

3.) Allison Hersh and Daniel London

4.) Hayley Lattman and Ryan Geftman

More about these couples, after the jump.