Lynn Garland Knows The Legal System's Ins & Outs

Being considered for an available seat on the Supreme Court is no small thing, particularly when the opening comes following the death of a high court justice who sat on the bench for three decades. Fortunately for chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., Merrick Garland, being put up for a nomination isn't unknown to him — he had been considered for both of President Obama's previous Supreme Court vacancies (filled by Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan). Garland's significant other is no stranger to the intense process of moving up the court system ladder, either. So who is Lynn Garland, Merrick Garland's wife?

Lynn (formerly Lynn Rosenman) already had justices in the family before marrying her husband in 1987. Her grandfather, Samuel Irving Rosenman, served as a justice on the New York Supreme Court. (He also worked as special counsel to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, no big deal.) Her father Robert worked as a partner in the New York firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, according to a New York Times marriage announcement.

So when Lynn tied the knot with Merrick, who was a partner at the Washington law firm Arnold & Porter at the time, she likely knew a thing or two already about what it takes to become part of the legal system from her dad, and what it takes to become a judge from her own granddad.

Lynn's educational history is — to be straightforward — no joke. She attended the prestigious Brearley School, an all-girls private school located in Manhattan's Upper East Side. She went on to Harvard University, graduating with cum laude honors, and then to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management to earn a Master of Science in operations management.

Though Lynn was surrounded by legal experts, the New Yorker opted for an alternate career path, according to the Times announcement. In 1987, she worked in Falls Church, Virginia, as a staff assistant to the vice president of operations for defense electronics contractor E-Systems Inc.'s Melpar division, but not much about her career has been publicized since.

So though Lynn has various connections to the nation's legal system, she's not as into it as the potential SCOTUS nominee. Merrick has been all about the courts since he graduated from Harvard Law in 1977; he even clerked for SCOTUS Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. before marrying Lynn.

Having been in the game for quite awhile, the couple shouldn't be fazed by the latest push for Garland to reach the high court.