Major update in Slater + Gordon scandal after law firm launched a ‘forensic investigation’ into blistering all-staff email

By NICK WILSON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 02:23 GMT, 25 March 2025 | Updated: 02:39 GMT, 25 March 2025

A former employee of one of Australia’s top law firms has been referred to police after a scathing all-staff email blasted its top executives as ‘useless’ and ‘lazy’. 

Slater + Gordon said it had ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect the former employee ‘who was aware of the firm’s security protocols and had previously been authorised to access certain data’ in a statement on Tuesday.  

The email, which was sent to the firm’s 900 staff, critiqued the personality flaws of the company’s leaders, detailing who was ‘disloyal’, ‘useless’, ‘a gossip’ and ‘lazy’. 

In the firm’s first major update since the 21 February emails, chief executive Dina Tutungi said on Tuesday the firm had referred the outcomes of its forensic investigation to Victoria Police.

The investigation was initiated following an emergency meeting within the firm which was convened to determine whether the email was sent by one or more former staff members or a combination of current and former staff. 

Ms Tutungi assured staff that no information about its clients was leaked in the ‘malicious’ email and that it had been referred to police. 

The forensic investigation found that at least ten identical emails had been sent in a 16-minute period from 9.41am on Friday, 21 February in an apparent effort to circumvent the firm’s IT protocols. 

Slater + Gordon said it believed the firm’s former chief people officer Mari Ruiz-Matthysen, whose name was attached to the emails, was not responsible for the incident. 

A former employee of one of Australia’s top law firms has been referred to police after a scathing all-staff email blasted its top executives as ‘useless’ and ‘lazy’

The author of the email is believed to have had access to restricted information including private events, illnesses among staff members, investigations into employee conduct and planned redundancies.  

The firm said the email contained a ‘range of false and misleading claims’. 

More to come.  

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Major update in Slater + Gordon scandal after law firm launched a ‘forensic investigation’ into blistering all-staff email

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