Leigh Day has brought cases against the German and Japanese governments for their mistreatment of prisoners of war (PoWs) and labourers during the second world war.
In the 1990s, Leigh Day represented thousands of former British PoWs detained in Japanese camps in a legal action against the Japanese Government in the Tokyo District Court. The claims were settled in November 2000, for the sum of £10,000 each. Over twenty thousand former PoWs and internees received compensation.
In the 1999, Leigh Day was also asked by the Federation of Poles in Great Britain to work with them to bring a claim against the German Government on behalf of former slave labourers in Nazi Germany. Proceedings were also issued in the US against German firms. Leigh Day subsequently entered into negotiations with the German and Polish Governments and went on to resolve the claims brought by those enslaved by the Germans during the Second World War.