900 employees at a top Australian law firm received an email. It contained a damning spreadsheet.

Ding. A new message shoots to the top of the inbox of all 906 employees at a prominent law firm.

Youuuu've got mail.

Inside, a spreadsheet reveals the supposed pay details of every employee. Salaries, bonus details — the lot. The sender also shares performance rankings of all staff and brutal sledges of key senior executives.

"Senile and needs to retire", "ruthlessly ambitious" and "lazy and unmotivated" they reportedly say. Ouch.

But that's not all. The email also called out private equity firm Allegro Funds, which acquired Slater and Gordon in 2023, for apparently planning to "gut the place" and described the law firm as a "textbook case of dysfunction". Talk about airing dirty laundry…

It's the workplace scandal that has the legal world buzzing. Last week, employees at Slater and Gordon, one of Australia's largest plaintiff law firms, received all this in a very messy email.

It appeared to come from Mari Ruiz Matthyssen, the outgoing people officer. But in a twist, the firm quickly declared the email a "malicious" hoax, saying Ruiz-Matthyssen wasn't behind it at all.

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On Monday night, Ruiz-Matthyssen shared a strongly-worded statement, making it clear she's been wrongfully accused.

"The manner in which this matter has been handled over the past four days has caused immeasurable damage and distress to me personally and professionally, as well as to my family," she said, according to the Australian Financial Review.

She didn't stop there.

"I did not send the email. A cursory examination of the email and its attachment [gives] a clear indication as to the likely identity of the sender. I have engaged lawyers and I am in the process of taking legal action." It's not quite clear exactly who she's taking legal action against.

Instead, it appears someone impersonated her using a Gmail account under her name.

And it sounds like a disgruntled current or former employee is likely to blame, according to The Australian.

Slater and Gordon is investigating the leak. Image: AAP.

Slater and Gordon CEO Dina Tutungi described the incident as a "malicious" hoax and a deliberate invasion of privacy.

Tutungi apologised, saying she understood "the upset and distress this has caused".

"It contains many disparaging, false, and deliberately misleading claims. The information attached to the email, while unreliable, should never have been shared," she told the AFR.

"We are conducting a forensic investigation to find out how this occurred. I want to assure all of our employees that they will be provided every support possible."

They've called in the big guns (private cybersecurity analysts) to figure out what happened, and reported the incident to police.

The firm believes this wasn't a coordinated cyberattack but rather a "lone wolf" incident, according to preliminary investigations by their cyber incident response team and external specialists.

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Despite their efforts to contain the situation, reports suggest the email and its attachments have already been widely shared throughout legal circles across Australia.

The aftermath? Extremely awkward. Imagine finding out exactly what your colleague two desks over is making. Staff are now comparing salaries with each other, and understandably, not everyone is happy.

To deal with the fallout, external HR experts will be called in for staff upset about pay disparity.

Office drama doesn't get much more intense than this, does it?

Feature image: Getty.