Lawyer Bruce Peters fails in bid to have disciplinary charge thrown out

A well-known Queensland criminal lawyer has failed in his bid to have a disciplinary charge relating to his supervision of a law clerk thrown out of a tribunal.

Bruce Peters outside Brisbane Magistrates Court in 2020. Picture: NewsWire/ Dan Peled

A well-known Queensland criminal lawyer has failed in his bid to have a disciplinary charge brought by the legal profession’s watchdog thrown out of a tribunal.

Bruce Peters, the director and principal solicitor of Brisbane Criminal Lawyers, has been accused by the Legal Services Commissioner of falsely denying he supervised a law clerk during her work experience placement.

Mr Peters applied to have this charge thrown out of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, but this was refused last Thursday by Justice Paul Freeburn.

The LSC alleges Peters professional conduct was unsatisfactory or amounted to misconduct, the decision states.

The full hearing is yet to be heard.

Mr Peters is accused of falsely denying supervising law clerk Sarah Josey during her work experience placement at his firm between about 27 October 2021 and 8 December 2021, which is the allegation he unsuccessfully sought to have dismissed.

Mr Peters argued in the tribunal that the charge was misconceived.

“There is a contest on the evidence,” Justice Freeburn states.

“Ms Josey says, in effect, she was supervised by Mr Peters. From this distance that seems to be a strong case,” he wrote.

Lawyer Bruce Peters has failed in a bid to have a disciplinary charge brought by the Legal Services Commissioner thrown out. File picture: Richard Walker

“Mr Peters himself has certified it. On the other hand, Mr Peters now says that he did not supervise Ms Josey. That case, again from a distance, appears rather weak. Mr Peters certified the opposite and his duty as principal of the firm required him to supervise his employees,” Justice Freeburn wrote, following a hearing on May 28.

Ms Josey asked Mr Peters to sign a College of Law ‘placement declaration and annexure’ form in October, which he signed, four months after she resigned from the firm.

The tribunal decision states that Ms Josey’s last day at the practice on 16 June 2021, “involved some strong words”.

It states that Ms Josey and solicitor colleague Nicholas Schoenmaker “appear to have left the practice without Mr Peters’ best wishes”.

On 27 October 2021 Mr Peters emailed Ms Josey: “Your role in my office was to assist my associate Mr Schoenmaker and as such you did not receive supervision from me.”

“I remember you asking me to sign off on what I believed was some form for work experience the day you left my employ, and I am uncertain as to what that was and that may have been signed in error on my part,” Mr Peters wrote in the email, quoted in the tribunal ruling.

Justice Freeburn noted in his decision that “it is unlikely that an experienced solicitor such as Mr Peters did not read or understand what he signed. However, at the hearing, the tribunal will have the advantage of hearing Mr Peters’ and Ms Josey cross-examined on this and other topics.”

Peters was first admitted to practice in New South Wales in 2000, then moved to Queensland and established Brisbane Criminal Lawyers in 2010, according to his website.

He has most recently appeared in court to defend an elderly couple who were given good behaviour bonds for keying luxury Tesla and BMW cars at Brisbane’s Brookside Shopping Centre in Mitchelton.

He has also defended an Extinction Rebellion protester who was given a good behaviour bond for glueing himself to a courtroom table during another court hearing.

Originally published as Lawyer Bruce Peters fails in bid to have disciplinary charge thrown out