Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson wrote to Attorney-General George Brandis' office on May 11 denying claims he was consulted over new restrictions on his power to give legal advice to anyone within the government and intensifying a dispute between the country's most senior legal officials.

Days before the federal election was called last month, Senator Brandis tabled guidelines in Parliament that ruled that no one in government, including the Prime Minister, could seek the Solicitor-General's advice without his permission.

The move provoked extreme disquiet in legal circles because of the interference in the work of the country's most senior independent legal adviser.

Attorney-General George Brandis is being challenged over the accuracy of who he did or didn't consult. Andrew Meares

In tabling the new guidelines, Senator Brandis declared that he had consulted with Mr Gleeson.

It has now emerged that Mr Gleeson wrote to Senator Brandis on May 11 – via an email to two of the senator's advisers and to a departmental liaison officer – that was widely copied within the bureaucracy, noting that he did not accept that he had been consulted in relation to the direction, as had been asserted in parliament.