There is nothing worse than having the diet-right foresight to bring a tub of yoghurt into work, to spend two hours thinking about the delicious morsuls of strawberry and luscious licks of creaminess, only to look in the fridge at 10:30am, smack bang in the middle of a tummy rumble … and find it missing. We’ve all been there. But few of us have had the courage to fight back.
AAR secretary Katrina Nugent is a bold exception to this general rule. In 2005, she sent an email to the entire floor (level 20) on which she worked at Allens’ Sydney office, demanding answers. The food in question? A humble ham sanga, topped with a cheese slice. Hers was a war fought on principle… and because she was short of cash and long on hunger.
But it gets way worse than that, hence why we thought it deserved a place on the FS servers (plus we’ll be referencing it in a funny office-theft drama tomorrow).
Onto the classic exchange:
From: Nugent, Katrina
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 9:39 AM
To: sydflr19A – Senior Associates; sydflr19L – Lawyers; sydflr19S – Support Staff
Subject: My lunch…Yesterday I put my lunch in the fridge on Level 19 which included a packet of ham, some cheese slices and two slices of bread which was going to be for my lunch today.
Over night it has gone missing and as I have no spare money to buy another lunch today, I would appreciate being reimbursed for it.
Katrina Nugent
From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 9:55 AM
To: sydflr19A – Senior Associates; sydflr19L – Lawyers; sydflr19S – Support Staff
Subject: RE: My lunch…Katrina
There are items fitting your exact description in the level 20 fridge. Are you sure you didn’t place your lunch in the wrong fridge yesterday?
Regards
MelindaFrom: Nugent, Katrina
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:06 AM
To: Bird, Melinda
Subject:Melinda
Probably best you don’t reply to all next time, would be annoyed [sic] to the lawyers.
The kitchen was not doing dinner last night, so obviously someone has helped themselves to my lunch.
Really sweet of you to investigate for me!
Katrina Nugent
From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:14 AM
To: Nugent, Katrina
Subject: RE:Katrina
Since I used to be a float and am still on the level 19 email list I couldn’t help but receive your ridiculous email – lucky me!
You use our kitchen all the time for some unknown reason and I saw the items you mentioned in the fridge so naturally thought you may have placed them in the wrong fridge.
Thanks I know I’m sweet and I only had your best interests at heart. Now as you would say, “BYE”!
Regards
MelindaFrom: Nugent, Katrina
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:15 AM
To: Bird, Melinda
Subject: RE:I’m not blonde!!!
From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:16 AM
To: Nugent, Katrina
Subject: RE:Being a brunette doesn’t mean you’re smart though!
From: Nugent, Katrina
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:17 AM
To: Bird, Melinda
Subject: RE:I definitely wouldn’t trade places with you for “the world”!
From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:19 AM
To: Nugent, Katrina
Subject: RE:I wouldn’t trade places with you for the world…I don’t want your figure!
From: Nugent, Katrina
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:21 AM
To: Bird, Melinda
Subject: RE:Let’s not get person [sic] “Miss Can’t Keep A Boyfriend”.
I am in a happy relationship, have a beautiful apartment, brand new car, high pay job…say no more!!
From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:23 AM
To: Nugent, Katrina
Subject: RE:Oh my God I’m laughing! happy relationship … – yep really happy relationship with …, beautiful apartment (so what), brand new car (me too), high pay job (I earn more)…say plenty more… I have 5 guys at the moment! haha.
From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:24 AM
To: Pawlukowski, Dorothy
Subject: FW:From: Bird, Melinda
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:24 AM
To: Watson, Amanda; Snowdon, Georgina
Subject: FW:From: Pawlukowski, Dorothy
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:27 AM
To: Cresswell, Michael; Thompson, James; Levitt, Jeremy; Bechler, Matti; Tehrani, Ash; Burrell, James
Subject: FW:ok this is the last one, it’s getting too intense
Regards,
Dot Pawlukowski
Mergers & AcquisitionsFrom: Levitt, Jeremy
Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:29 AM
To: Pawlukowski, Dorothy; Cresswell, Michael; Thompson, James; Bechler, Matti; Tehrani, Ash; Burrell, James
Subject: RE:apparently (on good information) Backhouse is her cousin and they have slept together
The email exchange was forwarded to Gadens, Mallesons and Phillips Fox, before landing in the inbox of employees at Westpac, Deloitte, Macquarie Bank and JP Morgan. The two secretaries were apparently fired by Allens, before the following no-nonsense email was sent to staff:
Email is a business tool, not a personal messaging system. The use of it in this case was not in any way acceptable, nor is that the way we expect people to treat their work colleagues. We have taken appropriate disciplinary action against anyone who dealt with the email inappropriately.
Oh yes, we must not let anyone deal inappropriately with an email…
Send the Firm Spy your news and views!
—–
UPDATE: 10/11
Little did we know that the original version of this post contained the sanitised email exchange. A commenter wrote:
Didn’t an AAR lawyer in response to the catfight send a rather salacious email (which also did the rounds) to 4 or 5 other AAR lawyers about the nocturnal exploits of the catfighter(s)?
Another FS follower responded with a link to the original email exchange which showed that, indeed, ex-AAR lawyer Jeremy Levin accused Katrina Nugent of having slept with her cousin. Not nice stuff from a colleague. What’s even more interesting is that while both secretaries were fired over the incident, fee-earner Levitt apparently held onto his job. This led our friends at Justinian to remark:
Why should these two women be sacked over their silly private email yet the bloke who posts the really snide observation survives?
Good question! A spokesperson from the firm responded at the time:
“We are not prepared to discuss any disciplinary action taken or the reasons for it. Given all the circumstances, we have acted appropriately. Employees have been reminded of the appropriate use of email as a result of an unfortunate email exchange last week…
Of course, this didn’t fit too snugly with the firm’s values policy at the time:
“We respect each other, we consider others and respect people’s individuality and their contribution. It’s important to us that individual staff members feel free to be who they are and that they feel safe and valued.”
So, what’s the wash-up, 6 years after this infamous episode? According to an anonymous tipster
[Jeremy Levitt] has since left AAR and the profession. His spin says he:‘quit his job at law firm Allens Arthur Robinson to become an entrepreneur’. The fact that all but one of the other AAR lawyers in the chain appear to have either left the profession or at least the state might indicate that AAR did a pretty thorough cleanup. And yes, they really are that powerful. The lesson for all here is don’t email and don’t text.
And that’s a wrap!
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that was 2005? i remember it like it was yesterday…and the rest of it. i feel old
2005? What a scoop!
An oldie but a goodie.
I remember that one – hilarious. It went to the inbox of practically every person in Sydney. A girl I worked with had a close friend at AAR so we all had it in seconds.
Please tell me you have more though?
It is not intended to be a scoop. It is a lame re run of the story but. Slow FS day.
To be fair to the secretaries involved in 2005 – they were probably just demonstrating petty conduct they had seen between lawyers.
Great Stuff! Think AAR are still suffering from this one!! haha
and the girls involved are still getting a mention 6 years on!
Didn’t an AAR lawyer in response to the catfight send a rather salacious email (which also did the rounds) to 4 or 5 other AAR lawyers about the nocturnal exploits of the catfighter(s)?
I wasn’t involved in the legal industry back in 2005 so was unaware of this story. Very amusing and thanks for sharing FS!
So who ate the ham sandwich?
I remember being dragged into the Melbourne AAR partners lounge with others that had sent the email out of the firm. I was nervous till I noticed the company around me were SA’s, SC and a bunch of others that were unlikely to be fired. The whole tone of the roasting was quite light hearted and jokey.
The smart ones sent the email, then deleted it from their sent items.
@ oops – if you think a law firm like AAR doesn’t keep a log of every email you send from your firm address you are seriously deluded.
The smart ones copied the email to their personal email and sent it from there
I’m not sure what they would classify a “high pay” job as. 6 years ago a senior legal secretary would have been on $80k as an absolute max. So, these two would have been on considerable less.
A photo of the two here: http://www.justinian.com.au/archive/allens-fires-the-wrong-people.html, if anyone is interested.
What sort of ham was it?
Guys – is the caption mix up deliberate?
The bleached blonde is Melinda Bird…
Geez, scraping the bottom of the barrel with this old news. You might as well bring back the Claire Swires story.
I am also saddened that you don’t have the subsequent items that went around as well. The listing of ham on ebay, The Hoff with the ham sandwich down his pants etc etc.
80% of the non-partner legal staff from more than 6 years ago have probably f**ked off elsewhere. It’s the nature of the beast. Statistically it’s unlikely more that one or two of these people would still be around.
Additionally, one of them (Bird / Nugent) got ~$60,000 from the firm for unfair dismissal, though I don’t recall which one.
It would help if firmspy got the names right in the caption below the photo
I feel sorry for these girls….. surely they have paid for their mistake already! No point dragging it up years later….
Some Corrs litigators put up a fake job ad on seek parodying this … and then when seek took it down sent a letter of demand to seek because they hadn’t complied with their own T+Cs
AAR still ward you off using email inappropriately when new staff undergo orientation – so much so that they stress that they have relocated the ‘reply all’ button, and discourage staff from using it at all I guess theres just no getting over then ham sandwich episode.
FD has just discovered that Bradley Chait now works for Nokia Siemens.
http://de.linkedin.com/pub/bradley-chait/a/a02/b83/de
Talk about destiny, yo.
You lame arses had nothing better in the Firmspy fridge than a stale six year old packet of ham and slices of cheese? How woeful.
Re – the washup from 6 years ago, Backhouse is still at Allens. He is buddies with M Rose.