Orthodox pair is legally pink
THEY LIKE TO call themselves “Double Trouble,” and they have people seeing double.
Law partners Sara Shulevitz, 40, and Mindy Meyer, 26, make quite the fashion statement, appearing in city courthouses and elsewhere in identical bright pink outfits, including their beloved Chanel patent leather pink ballet flats.
Sartorial twins Shulevitz and Meyer are both Orthodox Jewish women practicing criminal law — a rarity in the gritty hallways of the city’s legal world.
“We comply with Orthodox Jewish rules of modesty, but we like to wear pink,” Shulevitz said.
“We love fashion and makeup. I think we represent the new feminism, that pink is powerful and that we don’t have to look and act like men.”
The litigious duo favors J. Crew, Oscar de la Renta, matching pink blazers from Zara, Christian Louboutin shoes and Sephora and MAC cosmetics.
Besides their vocations, the chic barristers share the experience of coming out of conservative upbringings in which women are expected to remain in the background supporting their husbands and raising the children.
“They say a woman’s place is in the house,” said Meyer, who in 2012 became the youngest person ever to run for state Senate as a Republican. “I say it’s in the courthouse, but I remain steadfast to my values.” She is married with a baby.
Shulevitz, a rabbi’s daughter who was raised on the Upper West Side, says her family was initially less than pleased at her choice of a career.
“When I went to law school, it was considered a shanda (scandal) because women are supposed to not be seen so much in public. People tried to talk me out of it,” said Shulevitz, who is single.
“For a few years, my father was very concerned. He pressured me to get married young. But now they have come to be very proud.”