He was a son of office manager Christian Fredrik Gottfred Bohr Harbitz (1833–1916) and his wife Fanny Theobald (1839–1872). He was the older brother of pathologist
Francis Harbitz, and a paternal grandson of
Georg Prahl Harbitz. He enrolled as a law student in 1880, and graduated with the
cand.jur. degree in 1884. He worked as a law clerk from 1884 to 1890, and in 1890 he opened a lawyer's office together with the later
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Christian Fredrik Michelet. From 1896 Harbitz was a barrister with access to
Supreme Court cases. In November 1891 in
Hamburg he married Helga Fredrikke Winding Pettersen, who hailed from
Bergen. ==Political career==