Edith Haynes was born in Sydney in 1876 and moved with her family to Western Australia in 1891. In 1900, having worked at her uncle's law firm, she applied to the Barristers Board of Western Australia to sit the examinations necessary to practise as a lawyer. The board refused her request on the grounds that a woman was not a 'person' under the Legal Practitioners Act 1893. Haynes challenged the decision in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, but it was upheld; she was never admitted to practice. Edith Haynes died in 1963.

Sources used to compile this entry: Kerwin, Hollie and Rubenstein, Kim, 'Law', in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Judith Smart and Shurlee Swain (eds), Australian Women's Archives Project, 2014, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0624b.htm; Smart, Judith and Swain, Shurlee (eds), 'Haynes, Edith Ann Mary', The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2 May 2014, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0254b.htm; Original letters from Edith and Richard Haynes held by Legal Practice Board. Malcolm, David K.,, 'Centenary of Edith Haynes Decision', Brief, vol. 31, no. 9, 2004, pp. 16-18.