‘Carefully planned attack’: Slater and Gordon refers ‘malicious’ email debacle to Victoria Police

An Australian law firm embroiled in a rogue email scandal has referred a former employee to Victoria Police following a forensic investigation.

Slater and Gordon on Tuesday claimed there were “reasonable grounds to suspect” that “malicious emails” sent to more than 900 employees in February and alleged to contain salary information had been sent by an ex-employee.

The consumer law firm has been attempting to get to the bottom of the scandal that involved a “series of identical emails” sent on Friday, February 21 between 9.41am and 9.57am.

In a statement the firm branded the flurry as a “premeditated and carefully planned attack which Slater and Gordon condemns in the strongest possible terms”.

Slater and Gordon confirmed the findings of its investigation had been referred to police.

“This matter continues to be taken extremely seriously by Slater and Gordon, and we have referred the outcomes of the forensic investigation to Victoria Police. We will continue to assist the police with their work,” chief executive Dina Tutungi said in a statement.

“While this malicious incident was unwelcome, our priority remains our people and the critical work we do every day to provide access to justice for our clients.”

More than 10 emails were sent, according to Slater and Gordon, which also claimed the list of recipients appeared to have “deliberately excluded the IT team and certain senior executives”.

Slater and Gordon also affirmed its belief that former chief people officer Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen was not responsible and that there was “no evidence to suggest that any current employee, contractor, or external threat actor was involved”.

Confirming the incident in February, a Slater and Gordon spokeswoman said what was contained in the email included a “range of disparaging remarks about individuals” and that what had been presented as internal information in the email was “incorrect and in many ways a work of fiction.”

Slater and Gordon said the firm had acted “swiftly to contain and mitigate” the fallout from the emails, including removing them from all inboxes and locking down the staff email archive system to prevent it being forwarded on.

The investigation has been overseen by a Board Incident Response Committee with the help of external advisers.