On Friday, Australian law firm Slater & Gordon was hit with a colossal crisis. Every staffer was copied on a “rogue” email, purportedly from the firm’s outgoing interim chief people officer, that disparaged individual firm leaders as “disloyal” and “useless.” It also had an attached spreadsheet with salary and other data on 906 current and former staffers.

As you can imagine, the incident has rocked the firm and the Australian legal world. The outgoing head of HR, Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen, denied she sent the electronic missive, which was a gmail addressed to the head of a law school’s HR department who will reportedly replace Ruiz-Matthyssen in the role at Slater & Gordon.

On Sunday, the firm’s CEO, Dina Tutungi, reiterated that Ruiz-Matthyssen didn’t send the email and announced Slater & Gordon will conduct an internal investigation into who did, according to the Daily Mail. Tutungi, who was one of the people criticized in the message, said the matter has been referred to the police.

‘Every Support’

“We understand the upset and distress this has caused, and we are conducting a forensic investigation to find out how this occurred,” Tutungi said, apologizing to “everyone affected by it,” according to the Daily Mail. “I want to assure all of our employees that they will be provided every support possible.”

The firm reportedly held several emergency staff meetings over the incident. In a wise crisis comms move, Tutungi said the firm would publicly comment further when it knew more.

Slater & Gordon is one of Australia’s largest plaintiffs’ firms, specializing in personal-injury and employment law, with about 40 offices in the country. It also has a major presence in the U.K. It was one of the first law firms to be publicly traded. In 2023, private-equity firm Allegro Funds bought it, so it no longer trades. The email alleges that Allegro “is gutting the place” and that the law firm is “a textbook case of dysfunction.”

Ruiz-Matthyssen spoke out on the matter for the first time Monday night, according to the The Australian Financial Review. She denied writing or sending the email and criticized the way the situation was being handled, though it’s unclear exactly with whom she was finding fault.

Former Employee

The Financial Review quoted an unnamed former Slater & Gordon worker who made an important point. He or she was one of the employees whose information was in the spreadsheet. This person was rightfully angry at not being contacted by the firm. This is obviously an ugly, fast-moving crisis, and Slater & Gordon seems to be trying to address it (e.g., the emergency meetings), but those listed in the spreadsheet need to be individually contacted — at the very least to inform them of the fact.

“I’m really angry that they haven’t contacted me — but they’ve had the time to launch an investigation, they’ve done multiple staff emails and had an emergency meeting,” the former employee said, referring to the first meeting on Friday, according to the Financial Review.

Still, it’s hard to fault the firm. Yes, this is an all-hands-on-deck nightmare. But it should be a warning to everyone that a crisis like this can hit suddenly and the work that needs to be done is indeed daunting.

Photo Credit: Dutchmen Photography/Shutterstock

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