The firm told a Senate inquiry that it only handled a related employment issue

Ashurst has contested KPMG’s claim that it engaged the law firm to investigate a former executive’s allegations in relation to the Big Four firm’s audit leaks scandal, reported The Australian Financial Review.

Ashurst supposedly conducted its investigation from June to August 2025, after KPMG concluded its own internal check. Ashurst reportedly said no wrongdoing had occurred.

The law firm’s involvement was called into question after KPMG eventually confessed to some of the allegations made by a former executive. Ashurst partner Jane Harvey and global managing partner Paul Jenkins both asserted at a Senate inquiry on Friday 19 June that the firm had never investigated such a matter – or been asked to.

The firm said it had been asked to advise on a related employment matter and not the allegations. Jenkins said KPMG may have been mistaken in response to parliamentary inquiry chair Deborah O’Neill asking whether Harvey and Jenkins were concerned that Ashurst’s name had been used in the presentation of inaccurate information.

Nonetheless, KPMG told independent director Jane Hemstritch that Ashurst had launched the investigation; subsequently, Hemstritch told the whistleblower that Ashurst had initiated an external investigation.

Coalition senator Paul Scarr inquired about an email sent to the whistleblower before a deed of release was inked regarding the launch of Ashurst’s investigation. Harvey...

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