He was a member of the "Royal Commission on Reform of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations" 1965. This became known as the Donovan Commission, and reported in 1968. Kahn-Freund, as the senior lawyer on the commission, has been regarded as having substantially written the Donovan Report published in 1968, although credit for moving the Commission's views towards a 'laissez faire' attitude has been largely given to another member, Hugh Clegg. The Donovan Report's significance in British Labour Law is that it formed the intellectual underpinnings of both the Industrial Relations Act 1971 and the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974.