How Big Law Fails Women

Why the recent tragic death of a celebrated equity partner in the UK should be a warning to us all

It’s taken me a few days to digest the reports of the coroner’s inquest into the death of Vanessa Ford, an equity partner at UK firm Pinsent Masons. Vanessa died in September 2023 after being struck by a train, having consumed “a significant amount of alcohol while undergoing an acute mental health crisis”, according to the inquest.

At first I struggled to bring myself to read reports of the inquest beyond their headlines. It felt triggering. I was afraid of what might surface, even though my finance law years are now long behind me.

As I finally read the article, my stomach clenched tight and I became overwhelmed with two feelings: immense sorrow, and the weird, lurking sense that it could have been me.

Fate intervened, I burnt out and left the legal profession before it got really bad. At the time of my burnout, I felt like a failure. In the years since, and now again, I wonder if my burnout saved my life.

The law.com article about the inquest details how Ford had been working 18-hour days in the lead up to the closing of a huge deal — the sale of Everton FC. I had flashbacks to the numerous transactions that saw myself and my colleagues…