[1] He published a wide range of books and legal texts and was one of the top law reform experts in the Commonwealth.

[2] Before his appointment to the judiciary, Hammond was made a partner in New Zealand law firm Tompkins Wake & Co in his early twenties.

In the same year he took up the presidency of the New Zealand Law Commission and chair of the Legislation Advisory Committee to Parliament.

In the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hammond was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the law.

These included media reporting of suicide, victims of family violence who commit homicide, and the creation of a separate crime of non-fatal strangulation.