Stephen R. Hertz, a partner at the Third Avenue practice, Debevoise and Plimton LLP, sent a suicide letter to his ex-wife yesterday evening before he plunged out his 22nd-floor window. Sources have reported that according to The New York Post, a building manager found Stephen R. Hertz, 54, at 9:21 pm mangled in the tree — which had to be cut down to retrieve his lifeless body. Stephen Hertz was pronounced dead at the scene near 105th st, behind the New York Cancer Hospital.
The Daily Mail UK Online has reported that Stephen Hertz sent a suicide note to his ex-wife. She sent it to a psychiatrist, who then called 911. The legal profession ranks fourth for its high rate of suicides, according to age-adjusted information provided to CNN by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An article by CNN also cites statistics that lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to suffer from depression than non-lawyers.
According to his business profile on the Debevoise & Plimpton website, Stephen R. Hertz represented public companies such as Landstar System, a global transportation services provider, and Cambrez, a life sciences company.
Some studies estimate that of the 1 million lawyers in this country, approximately 250,000 suffer from some form of depression. Another Manhattan lawyer, Leonard Morton, 45, jumped to his death from a 12th-floor window from his Broadway office near City Hall last March according to the New York Post. The Daily Mail UK reported that Leonard Morton represented the likes of Madison Square Garden and The Lincoln Center.
1 in 4 lawyers suffer from elevated feelings of psychological distress, including feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, anxiety, social alienation, isolation and depression according to Benjamin Sells article in the Florida Bar News, March 1995. A major depression is an extreme or prolonged episode of sadness in which a person loses interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities.
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