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.

They work on the most significant -- and glamorous -- legal cases of our time. They get $250,000 signing bonuses when they leave the marble palace at One First Street for private practice. They dominate when it comes to Legal Eagle Wedding Watch.

But at the end of the day, Supreme Court clerks are just like us. Some of their storybook weddings end unhappily.

From Robert Ambrogi, over at Legal Blog Watch:

It is the dream of so many Biglaw lawyers: To simplify, to downsize, to forgo big bucks in favor of personal fulfillment. And it was the dream the former Washington, D.C., Biglaw partner had pursued -- at least until his plans were foiled by last week's Massachusetts Appeals Court opinion in the case, C.D.L. v. M.M.L.

The unidentified lawyer had it all, graduating from law school near the top of his class, clerkships with a federal circuit court and then the Supreme Court, a private practice in energy law with the D.C. office of a large Wall Street firm, average annual income of $700,000, a large house in Maryland and private schools for the kids.

Eventually the travel and stress got to him and he began to contemplate downsizing. He and his wife came up with a plan for him to leave his firm and seek an alternative career, but still earn sufficient income to keep their lifestyles comfortable.

Seems reasonable. But things didn't turn out quite as they expected.

Read more, below the fold.

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!

Because we only had two LEWW winning couples for May, we're throwing this week's runners-up -- also very strong contenders -- into the mix for your consideration.

If you're ready to vote, here's the poll.

If you don't know who the heck these people are, click on the link below to read all about our fabulous finalists.

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.

It has been a while since the last installment of Legal Eagle Wedding Watch. But fear not; the next LEWW will be appearing shortly, most likely tomorrow.

In the meantime, to tide over those of you with a hankering for lawyer wedding news, here is a photo essay about the wedding of my co-clerk, Ryan Bounds, and Bethany Ingwalson (pictured above). Ryan and I were law school classmates and clerked together for Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain (9th Cir.).

Both Bethany and Ryan are lawyers. The bride is senior counsel at the IRS, currently on detail to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. She graduated from Miami University of Ohio, summa cum laude, and received a law degree from Georgetown, magna cum laude. The groom is senior counsel in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice. He graduated with distinction from Stanford and received a law degree from Yale. Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple!

The picture album -- featuring appearances by leading conservative lawyers and judges, including our former boss -- can be accessed here. Enjoy!

P.S. I took these pictures myself. They should not (and would not) be confused with professional wedding photographs.

Wedding of Bethany Anne Ingwalson and Ryan Wesley Bounds [Picasa Web Album]

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.

Now that the wedding season is in full swing, it's time for a poll to crown a Legal Eagle Wedding Watch couple of the month. We have two outstanding entries for April:

1. Keira Driansky and David Simon

2. Kristy Hong and Jonas Blank III

You can read all about these newlyweds after the jump. But if you're ready to vote, here's the poll:

And don't forget, we're still soliciting ideas for a new LEWW logo. Send your contributions here.

[Ed. note: We're all over the roofies at Bingham story. Look out for a post shortly.]

Here is a juicy bit of unconfirmed gossip, about the complicated love lives of three leading legal / political thinkers. From a Harvard Law School alum who was a year ahead of celebrity professor Samantha Power (one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals):

Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power are engaged, but apparently it's all secret because Cass hasn't told [his former paramour] Martha Nussbaum yet.

Well, it's not a secret any more.

We reached out to both Professor Sunstein and Professor Power. Neither had any comment (hence our treatment of this as unconfirmed). If you happen to have more info, please email us.

The Sunstein-Power romance, as you may recall, blossomed when they were working for the Obama campaign. Now, of course, Senator Barack Obama is on the brink of securing the Democratic presidential nomination. If he wins the general election, expect both Sunstein and Power to land plum positions in the Obama administration.

How plum? Check out Garrett Graff's fantastic piece about possible Obama cabinet picks, in the latest issue of Washingtonian magazine. Graff identifies Power, "the Pulitzer-winning human-rights researcher and author," as a "wild card" on Obama's foreign policy team.

"Wild card," indeed. As Graff notes, Power "helped tutor Obama in foreign policy, but resigned after comments where she called Hillary Clinton a 'monster.'" Graff suggests that Power "might take a leading role on the National Security Council or at the State Department or Pentagon."

And what about Cass Sunstein? He's not mentioned in the Washingtonian article, which focuses on Cabinet positions. But we could easily see Professor Sunstein, an authority on administrative law, snagging a seat on the prestigiously glistening D.C. Circuit -- en route to a possible berth on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Expect these two to be the toast of the D.C. cocktail party circuit in 2009 -- or, in the event of a John McCain victory, the most coveted company at Harvard faculty dinner parties.

Who Might Be on an Obama Cabinet? [Washingtonian]

Earlier: The Real Reason Cass Sunstein's Going to Harvard? He's Got the Power
Wanna Be A Public Intellectual? Date Cass Sunstein!

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'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.

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.

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.

Last week, our friends over at the WSJ Law Blog asked: "Why do 'trial lawyers' have such a bad name?"

One possible answer: Because they abandon their brides at the altar. From the Miami Herald:

Walk-away groom: Jim Ferraro, multimillionaire trial lawyer.

Ferraro, set to marry prominent real estate broker Patricia Delinois on Friday in a formal ceremony at Fisher Island's Vanderbilt Mansion, jilted her -- at the altar -- as they were about to exchange vows before 75 to 80 guests....

After five years of dating, the couple were to finally tie the knot. But, says Ferraro: 'When it was time to say `I do,' I just said, 'I love her but I just can't do this.' '' He walked away, flanked by sons James, 21, Andrew, 18, and daughter Alexis, 14.

The audience gasped. Delinois' sister, Ingrid Long, told off Ferraro -- loudly. Some say she yelled, ''You dog!'' Not so, Long says. ``I called him a snake. I think I even called him a few other things. I was trying very hard not to curse, but I think a few curse words came out.''

Says Ferraro: ``It was dramatic.''

Trial lawyers can be such drama queens. Maybe they get addicted to making audiences gasp -- you know, that whole "Perry Mason" thing. It appears that finances weren't behind the cancellation:

The issue, [Ferraro] says, was not money. ''We did have a prenup.'' She is CEO of Century 21 Premier Elite Realty. He has law offices in Miami and Cleveland, owns the Cleveland Gladiators arena football team, has a private jet, and built a 21,000-square-foot compound in Martha's Vineyard -- with 14 bedrooms, tennis court, basketball court, nine-hole putting green, movie theater, and weight and cardio gyms.

This time, Ferraro figures, their romance is done for good. ``She probably doesn't ever want to talk to me again.''

Power couple's wedding ends with `I don't' [Miami Herald]
Why Do “Trial Lawyers” Have Such a Bad Name? [WSJ Law Blog]

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.