Facts:

Maurice Smith, a solicitor admitted to practice in New South Wales in 2010, was from 2011 to 2015 employed by Jones Solicitors, before commencing practice on his own behalf as Smith Solicitors in 2016. In 2017 he was served with a subpoena requiring him to produce to the New South Wales Supreme Court original file notes he drafted in relation to a litigation matter. In answer to the subpoena, instead of producing the original file notes, he produced file notes that he had created after receiving the subpoena by transcribing - verbatim - his original file notes onto different paper. He did this because the original file notes were drafted on stationary bearing the name "Jones Solicitors" that he had lying around, and he did not want to implicate Jones Solicitors in the matter to which the subpoena related for fear of embarrassing them.

The NSW Law Society avers that by producing to the Supreme Court documents that were presented as being, but were in fact not, the original file notes, Maurice attempted deliberately to mislead the Supreme Court, and that his conduct counts as a serious impropriety reflecting dishonesty. The Law Society claims that Maurice's behaviour amounts to a breach of the lawyer's duty of candour towards the court. The Law Society has applied to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of NSW for a disciplinary finding of professional misconduct and seeks an order for a reprimand and a fine of $10,000.

Maurice instructs you to represent him. He does not contest the factual basis of the application, but urges that it was an isolated incident and that he is very sorry for what he did. He thinks that a finding of professional misconduct and the sanctions sought by the Law Society would be too severe in the circumstances.

Your role is to represent Maurice in the application brought by the Law Society: to present arguments in his favour in Australian law.