During his tenure, the government removed its opposition to the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, oversaw the prosecution of individuals who were involved in the 2024 riots, and agreed to cede sovereignty of the Chagos islands to Mauritius.

[21] Hermer defended Pakistani student Abid Naseer, later found to be an al-Qaeda operative and who intended to carry out a bombing attack at a Manchester shopping centre, before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) as the Home Office applied to deport him based on him being a threat to national security.

[23] He acted for four Kenyans who claimed they were tortured by colonial officials and soldiers, and Justice Richard McCombe ruled in July 2011 that they had the right to sue the British government for compensation.

[24] Three of the victims launched a second attempt in July 2012 to sue the British government following the discovery of Foreign Office files that documented the torture and murder of detainees by colonial officials.

[35] Elsheikh was part of the jihadist group dubbed the "ISIS Beatles", who carried out the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.

"[44] He also submitted that "once in ISIS territory, girls and women faced coercive and exploitative conditions" which Hermer described as a "complex issue" which he said could not be "effectively explored" unless the "potential victim" was "able to meaningfully participate by providing evidence in her appeal.

[47] On 23 June, he told the court that there were "systematic failures either to stop devastating oil spills or remedy their profound impact", and also said that the damage to the mangrove fields covered 13,000 hectares which was more than twice the area of Manhattan.

The case focused around whether security services, the police and UK government departments should have had joint liability for the alleged actions of Pakistan, which was an allied country in the war on terror.

[54] Zubaydah alleged that between 2002 and 2006 he was unlawfully rendered by agents of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland and Thailand (the six countries), where he was arbitrarily detained and subjected to extreme mistreatment and torture.

[13] He outlined the detail of the settlement to judge, Barbara Fontaine, at a High Court hearing in London where he said that around £50,000,000 would be allocated to a "restorative justice project", and also said that the defendants had agreed to fund an event titled "testimony week".

The asylum seekers said that they had previously hoped to find sanctuary in Canada, but were left stranded in the waters around the British Indian Ocean territory before the they tried to seek refuge in Britain.

[81] He said that after studies indicated that the pollution level was soaring, the council took seven years to make the first strategic needs assessment; going on to describe it as a "glacial pace in the context of a public health emergency.

[87][88] On 9 October 2023, in his opening statement on behalf of the families, he said that he would seek to find evidence "capable of suggesting" that the SAS were "applying a practice of unlawfully killing Afghan civilians"; later saying that this meant they were "conducting a campaign of murder" which he said was a "war crime amounting to grave breaches of the Geneva convention.

"[91][92] Following evidence that the SAS deleted data from its computers which was in breach of promises it had made to the Royal Military Police, Hermer said that it was at best "highly suspicious", and at worst a "patent and criminal attempt to pervert the course of justice.

In the speech, Hermer confirmed that the government would continue to abide by and unequivocally support the European Convention on Human Rights, and said that walking away total abdication of international law responsibilities.

[123] Hermer later provided his consent to charge several people for what was described as "stirring up racial hatred online", amidst the first sentencing[124] of two individuals for social media-related posts during the riots.

[125] Hermer said that the actions of the two individuals were "harmful and unlawful", and added that their sentences served as a "stark warning" that "you cannot hide behind your keyboard – you will face the full force of the law.

[126] He noted that there had been over 1100 arrests and 600 charged, and went on to say that he would not pretend that they did not "inherit a criminal justice system with some significant problems", but expressed his confidence in the Crown Prosecution Service, the police and judiciary's ability to "cope with the task" that they were presented.

[136] In a statement released on the day, Hermer said that it was "understandable" that they had received multiple requests to review the sentence under the scheme, but stated that after "careful consideration of independent legal advice and consultation with leading criminal barristers and the Crown Prosecution Service", he had concluded that the case could not properly be referred to the Court of Appeal.

[144][145] In his visit, he confirmed that the United Kingdom would not be pursuing the previous Conservative government's objections to the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for both Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

[146] In August, Hermer intervened in the Foreign Office review over whether the government should ban arms sales to Israel,[147] during a reported difficulty for officials to distinguish between "offensive" and "defensive" weapons.

[152] In October, Hermer confirmed in an interview with The Financial Times that the government would "comply" with their "lawful obligations" regarding any potential arrest warrant for Netanyahu from the International Criminal Court.

[160][161][162] After this, an open letter was then addressed to Hermer, which called for an "urgent" meeting between him, Labour donor Dale Vince and broadcaster Chris Packham to discuss what they described as the "jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

"[163] The letter received signatures from over a thousand from public figures including former Labour leader MP Jeremy Corbyn,[164] former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams,[165] and musician Chris Martin.

"[179] Further conflict of interest allegations emerged on 18 January, following the revelation that asylum seekers that Hermer previously represented were granted a "one-off" deal to come to the Britain from the Chagos Islands.

[186] In response to an urgent question in the House of Lords on 27 January, Hermer said that it was "vital" that the public were reassured that the "highest standards of propriety were applied" and said that his department would "always err on the side of caution" whenever there was a "reasonable doubt" over whether a law officer should be recused.

[4] In a podcast looking at the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, Hermer said he had represented Caribbean nations on a case regarding potential reparations, and said that there was a "moral argument" for Britain to pay.

[217] He went on to say that "for a very long time" Israel has had "effective control" over the borders of Gaza, which he said was reliant on the "need to have electricity, water and food coming in"; and that the "cutting of that off" was "very, very difficult to reconcile with obligations of international law" and described that as a "deliberate understatement" from him.

[9] He described the debate around immigration and asylum in the country as "toxic", and also said that Mountfield, Hunt and he were "acutely conscious" that slogans such as "stop the boats" and "control our borders" were capable of being not only "distracting", but also "dehumanising".

He stated that populism has been seen, in its "most pernicious forms", working to "demonise other groups – usually minorities and to discredit the legal frameworks and institutions that guarantee their rights, and dismantle, often through calculated misinformation, the political consensus that underpins them."