Haines & Polites opened its doors to the community in 1951, albeit initially under the name “McGindle & Haines”, pioneered by its founding partners and World War II servicemen, Edward McGindle and Ken Haines. 

Prior to our existence, in 1945, Edward was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross honour for safely landing his badly damaged aircraft with wounded crew and, by the age of just 21, had reached the rank of Acting Flight Commander.

On their return from combat, in 1949, Edward and Ken completed their Law degrees at the University of Melbourne and founded the firm in 1951. 

The firm has, since its inception, almost exclusively been located at various offices in Queen Street Melbourne, however, in its humble beginnings, Ken Haines worked out of the Glenroy Mechanics Institute Hall in an office without cooling, seeing clients at the peak of summer in 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We are proud to have a number of second and third generations of those hardy souls still among our clients.

In 1960, Peter Polites joined the firm in the position of an Articled Clerk and, by 1963, had become a partner of the firm.  The Polites family had come to Australia in the early part of the 20th century. They were industrious and entrepreneurial and sponsored many Greek families arriving in this country.  Again, the firm has retained many of those people as clients, acting in all manner of legal matters, encompassing domestic conveyancing and wills through to more complex commercial and litigious issues.