In 1972, the Legal Action Group was founded, with the aim of bringing about more active intervention by lawyers in welfare issues. The arrival of this ‘new kid on the block’ aroused the interest of Sweet and Maxwell in bringing together and stimulating the interest of both academics and practitioners in law and social policy with a series of short textbooks on ‘welfare and society’, beginning with Brenda Hoggett’s Mental Health in 1976, followed by her Parents and Children in 1977, and Roger Smith’s Children and the Courts in 1979. The next suggestion was the possibility of a journal to be edited by a lawyer and a social policy academic to encourage debate and research and to support the development of teaching and qualifications in social welfare. Brenda Hoggett, then teaching in Manchester, responded with enthusiasm to the suggestion. She was due a sabbatical term which, after some debate, was granted in order to set up the Journal of Social Welfare Law.