Class Notes, July-August 2003

Wednesday September 10, 2003 Category: Archives Permanent Link

Hello from London, where I’ve spent the past week writing about the war and Brad Pitt’s butt. As a friend puts it, clearly the two big issues of the day. (Get your minds out of the gutter: for the record, the butt-or bum, as they’d say here-is his new squeezable one at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. Personally, I think it feels like a slightly deflated kickball, but… ) I feel a segue involving the phrase “bum deal” coming on, but another friend-we’ll call him Adam Hill ‘97-informs me that if I make one more bad pun (I’ve apparently made too many cracks about London being a good place to drop a few pounds), he is revoking my dramatic license.

So on to your news. Amanda Ripley is still working for Time magazine, but now out of Fontainebleau, France (outside Paris), where her husband is getting his MBA. Despite recent Franco-American tensions, she is thoroughly enjoying “la vie en rose,” writing about French eccentricities, inhaling loads of secondhand smoke, and, of course, eating very well. She had a loyal crew of Cornellians over for a visit in May, Aileen Gariepy, Rebecca Kornfeld, and Lisa Green.

Aileen, by the way, is now living in Philadelphia with her husband and her chocolate Lab and working as a doctor. Rebecca is doing PR work in New York, and Lisa is getting her PhD in health policy at Johns Hopkins. Amanda also reports that Ethan Frank-Collins and wife Joy had their first child last year. He’s a cheery, robust boy named Cormac. “Frank-Collins is already prepping him for the minors, and I’m not joking about that,” she writes. Also on my side of the Atlantic, Elizabeth Bard is now happily installed in Paris, writing about arts and culture for publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Thanks to Google, my savior for all things column-related, I have discovered loads and loads of classmates working at law firms (which may explain the great news vacuum, since sending in one’s news probably does not do much to up one’s billable hours). In New York, Lauren Bergida and Theresa Buckley are at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, Brooke Spigler at Proskauer Rose, David Pospichil at Kelley Drye, Stacy Aronowitz at Schulte, Roth & Zabel, Brian Waldbaum at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Joshua Eisenberg, JD ‘00-who’s also a captain in the US Army Reserve-is at Heller Ehrman. Outside the City, Katherine Riedel is at Warren & Young in Ashtabula, Ohio; Eduardo Kim, JD ‘00, is at Thompson Hine in Cleveland; William Rubenstein is at Bond, Schoeneck & King in Syracuse; Charlotte Lee is at Nixon Peabody in Boston; and Erik Lehtinen is at Hewley Troxell Ennis & Hawley in Idaho.

Wedding Watch: Wedding One (courtesy of the New York Times): Jeremy Gans married Lisa Seslowe on April 13, ‘03 at the Pierre in Manhattan. The groom is an associate at Fulbright & Jaworski in Manhattan, and the bride is an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Wedding Two: Dr. Jami Finkelson married Kenneth Young ‘97 on April 6 at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York. Jami is a clinical psychologist doing a postdoctoral research fellowship in child psychiatry at Columbia. Kenneth is an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and a director of the Coro New York Leadership Center.

Wedding Three: Dr. Andrew Brief married Jessica Molk at Bridgewaters in Manhattan on Jan. 5. Andrew is a resident in orthopedic surgery at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in Manhattan. Jessica is studying for a master’s degree in early childhood and elementary education at NYU.

And finally: Congratulations to Howie and Rachel Effron Barkin on the birth of their son Jordan Foster on Jan 23. The Barkins live in West Orange, NJ, where Rachel works as a project manager for a pharmaceutical software company and Howie is an equities trader. No need to Google me if you want to send news.

Courtney Rubin, Class Correspondent