In 1984 Lady Hale, who was then known as Brenda Hoggett, was appointed to the English Law Commission. During her time there, which was sandwiched between her years as an academic and those as a full-time judge, she played a central role in designing many of the reforms she had called for while an academic and would later be asked to implement and interpret on the bench. Lady Hale served as the Commissioner responsible for family law for ten years and during this time she radically changed the landscape of family law at a time when society was experiencing a significant shift in attitudes towards the family, children, women’s rights and the public–private divide. The programme of work she oversaw significantly altered the focus of childcare law, the allocation of marital property and the protection of mentally incapacitated people, and also opened up what was to become a controversial debate about the ground for divorce. The success she enjoyed in converting working papers and draft statutes into Acts of Parliament is one which would be the envy of more recent Law Commissioners who it is said have found it more difficult to persuade Parliament of the merit or urgency of their proposals.