Gillian Mawdsley: A wake-up call for the legal profession

Vanessa Ford’s death on 23 September 2023 provides, if required, further evidence that legal professionals need to be supported regarding their mental health.

Vanessa Ford was a partner at Pinsent Masons. Her inquest was held on 27 February 2024. She was 47, living in London and left a husband and two sons. She had been working 18-hour days on 777 Partners’ acquisition of Everton Football Club and had travelled to Manchester for a lunch on the day before her death to mark the conclusion of the deal.

The circumstances of her death were that she had consumed a significant amount of alcohol while undergoing an acute mental health crisis. “She accessed… and allowed herself to drop onto the railway tracks below, where she was later struck by a train. The coroner found that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that she intended to take her own life.”

The inquest concluded that the medical cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries. Significantly with no secondary cause recorded. However it is still a warning as to her state of mind regarding overwork and pressure.

The coroner issued a Regulation 28 Prevention of Future Death notice only to Network Rail, citing safety and ease of access to the relevant railway line and seeking a practical result. However, what responsibility was held by her employers and the legal profession more widely in seeking to prevent other deaths as a result of the type of culture that prevails? It is argued that the legal profession should consider how to avoid or learn from this event. Including vicarious trauma training for all entering the profession could provide a start. That starts on