David Brown, James Rossiter, Patrick Foster
As a lawyer at one of the "magic circle" of leading corporate legal firms, Matthew Courtney was expected to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
He hoped that his efforts would eventually be rewarded with a partnership – and a £1 million salary.
But weeks after Mr Courtney, 27, and other associate lawyers at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer spoke to senior partners about their long hours and stress, he was found dead at Tate Modern, The Times has learnt.
He had gone alone to the art gallery after work on Friday and died instantly after plunging from a stairwell leading to the seventh-floor restaurant at 11.30pm.
The death of the Oxford-educated lawyer, the only child of the World Cup football referee George Courtney, has highlighted concerns about the stress suffered by City workers as bonuses reach record highs.
His father told The Times: "We talked to Matthew 24 hours before his death and he said he was working long hours but there was nothing there to suspect anything untoward.
"We have spoken to Matthew's line manager today, and there might have been an issue with his workload. They had recently taken some of that workload off him. Freshfields were very happy with the quality of his work."
Mr Courtney, of Pimlico, Central London, had been one of only 100 trainee lawyers selected each year to join Freshfields. He qualified last August and was appointed an associate specialising in intellectual property rights at its Fleet Street offices.
As a £ 55,000-a-year junior, he would frequently have been called on to work 16-hour days, seven days a week, for weeks on end to keep up with the firm's relentless flow of multi-billion-pound deals. Junior staff at Freshfields, which employs 2,400 lawyers worldwide, tend to put in this level of work - for up to eight years before they are eligible for partnership and some of the best financial rewards in the City.
A spokeswoman for Freshfields said: "The firm held a minute's silence at 11am on Monday in memory of a friend and a colleague. We are deeply sad and affected."
Mr Courtney studied law on an open scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, and spent a year at law school in London. He previously attended Durham School, which costs £ 4,000 a term. He spoke French, German and Spanish, was a talented violinist and saxophonist and had appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe while at Oxford. He had also been a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.
His father, who refereed at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, and mother, Margaret, were visited at their home in Spennymoor, Co Durham, by his manager and colleagues. Mr Courtney's father, who is 65, said: "Matthew set very high goals for himself and achieved great goals. He was a credit to himself and his family."
After qualifying last autumn, the father and son spent a month travelling around California. They also went to The Gambia before Christmas.
Mr Courtney's father said: "He had a good crowd of people around him at Freshfields and enjoyed his time there. He was like all of the associates there – he worked fairly long hours but there was a very good social side.
"The only sad thing is he had so much more to give to his employer, his friends and everybody whose lives he touched. I think he might have gone on to things other than the law. He always wanted to write."
Rodney Thomas, director of marketing at Durham School, who taught Mr Courtney German, said: "Matthew was the epitome of a gifted and talented pupil." Police studied security camera footage from Tate Modern but told Mr Courtney's family that it is inconclusive. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said that the death was being treated as "unexplained but not suspicious".
Market leader
— Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is Europe's top corporate law firm and last year worked on 260 deals worth €378.3 billion (£ 254 billion).
— It employs more than 2,400 lawyers in 28 offices around the world.
— Its 450 partners each earned on average £ 830,000 last year. Over the next two years this is expected to rise to more than £ 1 million.
— Freshfields' clients include Tesco and Cinven, a private equity firm weighing up a possible £ 10 billion bid for Sainsbury's.
Source: Mergermarket
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