Elizabeth Lane became the first woman elected as a bencher of any Inn of Court in England, a major institutional first for women in law.
In 1966, Elizabeth Lane became the first female bencher of any Inn of Court in England. The Inns of Court — Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Inner Temple, and the Middle Temple — are the ancient professional bodies to which every barrister in England and Wales must belong, and their 'benchers' constitute the senior governing members responsible for education, discipline, and the calling of new barristers.
For centuries, this senior governance role had been the exclusive preserve of men, even as women gradually entered the practising Bar following the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. Lane's election as a bencher, coming on the heels of her landmark High Court appointment the previous year, represented a further breach of a longstanding institutional barrier — this time within the internal governance structures of the legal profession itself rather than the courts.
Her election meant that, for the first time, a woman held decision-making authority over matters of training, discipline, and admission to the Bar at the institutional level. This paved the way for future generations of women barristers to be admitted, mentored, and disciplined under governance structures that finally included female representation.
Though the exact day of her election is not recorded in available sources, the year 1966 and her status as the first woman bencher are consistently documented across German Wikipedia and specialist legal history research.