Yet more news of fast lady lawyers – and Obiter believes the fastest lady lawyer in the land may finally have been chased down.

Veronique Marot, a 52-year-old sole practitioner from Leeds, is still ranked third-fastest marathon runner in the country after she smashed the British record in the 1989 London Marathon – crossing the finishing line in 2hrs, 25mins and 56secs. That British record was broken by Paula Radcliffe in 2002. And that was not the first time Veronique set a new British record. Running in the 1985 Chicago Marathon, she broke the existing record with a time of 2hrs, 28mins and 4secs.

Sadly for Veronique, various injuries just ahead of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, during which she represented Great Britain, slowed her down some – although she still managed to finish in ‘2 hours 45 minutes or so’.

So what got her running? While studying at York University in 1978 ‘someone suggested we run the Barnsley Marathon which was very hilly and not a glamorous event at all’. Despite very little training, Veronique completed it in a time of around 3hrs and 55mins and ‘still feeling fresh. I could have carried on running’.

TALE OF THE TAPESophie Dawson-Kohary – 29-year-old solicitor at Oxfordshire firm Hedges Solicitors – completed this year’s London Marathon in 3hrs, 5mins and 22secs. And here Obiter must set the record straight and fess up to getting Sophie’s time wrong in one of our many previous fast lady lawyer updates.

Yvonne Mcgarry – 48-year-old matrimonial law practitioner who runs (sic) her own firm in Hampshire completed this year’s London marathon in 3hrs, 15mins and 20secs. By some complex calculations involving age, weighting and the like, Mcgarry would have made it into the top 150 runners.

Deborah Gibbins, a 48-year-old family law practitioner who has her own firm in Basildon, wanted to know if she was the fastest lady in the law given her 3hrs 18mins 8secs performance in the Blackpool marathon on 27 April this year [see Obiter, 8 May 2008, 8]. Unfortunately not – Ms Marot is still way out in front.