Ada Emily Evans (17 May 1872 – 27 December 1947), was an Australian lawyer and the first female law graduate in Australia.

Early life

Evans was born in

Wanstead Wanstead () is a town in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge, London, Redbridge to the east and Forest Gate to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

(then a town in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

county, now a north-eastern suburb of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

), the daughter of

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Henry Evans and his wife Louisa, who came from a family of lawyers. She attended school in the London suburb of

Woodford Woodford may refer to: Places Australia *Woodford, New South Wales *Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region *Woodford, Victoria Canada *Woodford, Ontario England *Woodford, Cornwall *Woodford, Gloucestershire *Woodford, Greater ...

, before her family moved to Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia in 1883. There she attended

Sydney Girls High School , motto_translation = Work Conquers All , location = Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Sydney#New South Wales#Australia , established = , type = Governmen ...

, and began her tertiary education at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one o ...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895. Following graduation, she intended to establish a school with her sister in the inner-western suburb of Summer Hill, but abandoned the project after a period of illness.

Legal career

Later, encouraged by her mother Louisa, Evans enrolled again at the University of Sydney in 1899, this time in the

Sydney Law School Sydney Law School (informally Sydney Law or SLS) is the law school at the University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university. Sydney Law School began a full program of legal instruction in 1890 following the appointment of its first dean, havin ...

. Although the Dean of the school at the time, Pitt Cobbett, would by all accounts never have permitted a woman to enrol, he was absent overseas and Evans was able to enter the school. On his return, he declared to Evans "that she did not have the physique for law and would find medicine more suitable". The rules of practice in force in New South Wales at the time did not comprehend female lawyers, and there was no precedent of women becoming lawyers; when Evans attempted to register as a student-at-law with the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court ...

, her application was rejected. Although the rules of practice legislation did not actually disqualify women from becoming lawyers, the

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

at the time held that unless legislation specifically conferred rights or privileges on women, it did not apply to them, for women were not included in the definition of persons. Despite these setbacks, Evans persisted with her studies, and on 26 December 1902 graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree, the first woman in Australia to do so. Ada Emily Evans 4

Admission to New South Wales Bar Association

After graduating, Evans applied for admission to the

New South Wales Bar The New South Wales Bar Association is a professional body of lawyers responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The body administers the bar examination in accordance with the Legal Profe ...

to practise as a barrister, but again her application was rejected on the basis of her sex. She was similarly prevented from being admitted to the

English Bar Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. Barristers have traditionally had the role of handling cases for representation in court, both defence and prosecut ...

. Evans and her supporters in women's organisations commenced a campaign for the laws to be changed to specifically allow women to practise. Such laws were enacted in other

Australian states The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing po ...

to specifically allow the admission of women, and in 1905

Flos Greig Grata Flos Matilda Greig (7 November 1880 – 31 December 1958), Australian lawyer, was the first woman to be admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor in Australia. Early life Greig was born in Broughty Ferry, Scotland in 1880, o ...

became the first female barrister in Australia, when she was admitted to the

Victorian Bar The Victorian Bar is the bar association of the Australian State of Victoria. The current President of the Bar is Roisin Annesley KC. Its members are barristers registered to practice in Victoria. On 30 June 2020, there were 2,179 counsels ...

(having become the first

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

female law graduate in 1903). At this time, Evans also edited a weekly

women's page The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...

in the ''

Australian Star ''The Australian Star'' was a daily English language newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, from 1887 to 1909. It was published as ''The Star'', also known as ''The Star: the Australian Evening Daily'', until 1910 and then r ...

'' newspaper, her work incorporating "an underlying theme that truth and kindness were essential ingredients for human happiness." The

Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each ...

finally altered the law to enable women to practise law, with the passage of the ''

Women's Legal Status Act 1918 A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

'' late in 1918. Evans registered as a student-at-law in May 1919 and on 12 May 1921, after the requisite two years as a student, became the first woman to be admitted to the New South Wales Bar. However, although she was offered work as a barrister immediately, she declined to practise, citing her family commitments and the passage of time since her graduation and saying that she didn't want "women's standing in the profession to be undermined by a show of incompetence".

Later life

In 1909, Evans and her brother moved to the town of

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, about ninety minutes southwest of Sydney. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and Highlands. Bowral once served ...

in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, where they bought a six hectare farming property called Kurkulla, where she died, aged 75, in 1947. She was cremated in Sydney.

Ada Evans Chambers

In 1998, Sydney barrister Michael Maxwell opened a new barristers chambers in downtown Sydney NSW, named in honour of Ada Evans. The chambers was officially opened on 20 November 1998 by the Honourable Justice Mary Gaudron of the High Court of Australia. The opening was attended by Katherine Morgan (née Evans), solicitor who was admitted in 1989. She is the first relative of Ada Evans to become a lawyer and is Ada's cousin's great granddaughter. Mrs Morgan presented the Chambers with a copy of Ada Evans' graduation photograph from the University of Sydney.
Ada Evans Chambers
continues to operate today with a membership of 30 barristers with founding member Michael Maxwell still on the floor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Ada 1872 births 1947 deaths Lawyers from Sydney People from Bowral People from Wanstead Sydney Law School alumni People educated at Sydney Girls High School English emigrants to colonial Australia