Biglaw Widow Says Firm Bears Some of the Blame for Husband’s Suicide
The widow of Sidley Austin partner Gabe MacConaill has some harsh words for the stress that her husband endured while working at the firm before he took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot in October.
Above the Law, referring to an American Lawyer article by the widow, Joanna Litt, describes her feeling of helplessness as she saw her husband’s mental and physical condition decline while he was working on a big case:
“He told me his body was failing him. I picked him up and we decided he should go to the emergency room. He actually said to me on the way there, “You know, if we go, this is the end of my career.”
She said that she knows Biglaw didn’t directly kill her husband, but his condition was influenced by “a high-pressure job and a culture where it’s shameful to ask for help, shameful to be vulnerable, and shameful not to be perfect.”
Read the Above the Law article.
