Lawyer guilty of unsatisfactory conduct

A high-profile Queensland lawyer has been found guilty of "unsatisfactory professional conduct" for tendering a document containing scandalous allegations about the state's now-chief justice.

Michael Bosscher appeared before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in April, where his legal team defended his decision to tender a document called The Rofe QC Audit of the Heiner Affair at a Child Protection Commission of Inquiry in 2012.

The document contained false allegations that now-Chief Justice Catherine Holmes had engaged in corruption when she was serving as counsel assisting a child abuse inquiry.

NSW Judge Clifton Hoeben found his conduct was likely to diminish the public confidence in the administration of justice by enabling the publication of untrue allegations about a member of the judiciary.

Further, he found tendering the document was "a failure to exercise the forensic judgment called for by the circumstances".

At the hearing, Mr Bosscher's counsel, Peter Davis QC, said the document was already publicly available and it was up to the commissioner or his team to redact the allegations or issue a non-publication order before it went on the inquiry website.

In response to this it was argued the document's tender enabled its wider publication because of the high level of media interest in the matter in the inquiry.

The Legal Services Commissioner will now file submissions about the appropriate penalty and costs, to which Mr Bosscher will be able to respond.