A high-profile Tauranga lawyer has admitted to having an affair with a young client and misleading the Law Society about it.

Defence lawyer Craig Horsley is reported to have made the admissions before the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in Auckland yesterday.

Craig Horsley in Tauranga District Court.

He was facing allegations of disgraceful and dishonourable conduct, and misleading the law standards committee.

Craig admitted lying to the committee about the relationship and when it began, saying he did not want his wife to suspect the then 18-year-old girl's baby was his.

The 55-year-old lawyer and his wife Rachael Adams operated the Tauranga legal practice Adams and Horsley. The practice today told SunLive Craig no longer works there and now works from home. He told the tribunal yesterday the affair ended his marriage.

Craig was charged by the Canterbury Westland Standards Committee with entering into an inappropriate relationship with the teen while she was his client.

That charge is now one of acting as the teenager's lawyer while in an intimate personal relationship with her.

At the hearing the tribunal heard that Craig allegedly entered into a sexual relationship with the then 18-year-old in June 2010.

The following day the teen was involved in a motor vehicle accident and charged with careless driving and driving with excess breath alcohol. She called Craig from the police station and he went to pick her up.

Before the incident he represented her in the Youth Court in 2008 and 2009.

The issue was made public when she approached him in Tauranga District Court in August 2010. She abused him in the busy court foyer announcing she was pregnant with his child.

In April 2011 the woman had a baby girl, now in Child Youth and Family custody. Craig says he is not the father.

A police investigation found the woman was over the legal age of 16 when the affair began and that there was no evidence of a crime.

The woman, now aged 20, is understood to be serving a three month sentence in Auckland Womens' Prison on charges of dangerous driving, failing to stop, possession of cannabis, resisting police, common assault and breaching a liquor ban.

The case is adjourned part-heard to give counsel time to make further submissions. No date has been set for the resumed hearing.