After graduating high school, she was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces, where she served in the military music band of Central Command.[4] After her discharge from the army, Hayut attended law school at Tel Aviv University, graduating in 1977.[5][6] During her law studies, she also met her husband, David Hayut, with whom she had two sons. Hayut interned at the law firm of Haim Yosef Zadok, a former Israeli Minister of Justice, where she stayed on to work as an associate lawyer between 1977 and 1985. After leaving the firm, Hayut opened an independent office together with her husband, specializing in commercial and tort law.