Lady Justice Juliet May studied PPP (Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology) at Wadham College, Oxford before obtaining an M.Phil in clinical psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. She worked as a clinical psychologist in the NHS, including in forensic services, before retraining as a barrister. She was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1988, where she became a bencher in 2010. She has served on a number of Inn committee, volunteered at student training events and has chaired both the Qualifying Sessions and Education and Training Committees. Her pupillage was at 3VB, a commercial set of chambers in Gray’s Inn, where she went on to obtain tenancy, taking silk in 2008. She served as a part time judge of the Mental Health Tribunal (England) between 2002 and 2008. She was appointed a Recorder in 2001, a Circuit Judge in 2008, a deputy High Court Judge in 2013 and a High Court Judge assigned to the Queen’s, now King’s, Bench Division in 2015. She was a Presiding Judge on the Western Circuit for four years from 2017 to 2020. She was appointed Judicial Lead for Youth Justice in 2022. She joined the Sentencing Council as a judicial member in 2020 and was appointed as Chair of the Sentencing Council on 6 October 2025.