May Martin
May's advocacy skills are excellent. She is calm and composed throughout. No stone goes unturned!
Chambers and Partners (2025) - Employment (Up and Coming)
About
May is a specialist employment law barrister. She is listed as a Rising Star in the Legal 500 and Up-and-Coming in Chambers & Partners. She is described as ‘excellent in court’ and her submissions as ‘exceptional’. Recent clients include Asda, Network Rail, Sky, and numerous NHS Trusts.
May regularly appears in the Employment Tribunal for both preliminary and final hearings. She has significant experience with multi-day final hearings, substantive preliminary hearings, and remedy hearings. May has particular expertise in cases involving healthcare and public sector clients, including the NHS, as she completed a secondment at a leading solicitors’ firm working almost exclusively with such clients, and has frequently represented such clients in the Tribunals since then. Recent work includes:
- A 10-day disability discrimination case for a national telecommunications company;
- A 5-day disability discrimination case for the NHS;
- A 1-day preliminary hearing on employment status for a dental surgery;
- A 4-day race discrimination and unfair dismissal case for a national retailer;
- A 2-day remedy hearing where she successfully argued for re-engagement and back-pay.
May welcomes instructions to draft Grounds of Complaint and Grounds of Response. She regularly advises on liability in employment law matters and prides herself on her quick turnaround time for employment papers.
May has written for the ELA’s Employment Law Briefing. She is happy to, and regularly does, provide training talks on employment law issues. She also accepts instructions to provide mock tribunals.
Areas of Expertise
Contact May Martin
Accolades
May Martin
May is an excellent advocate. She gets to the heart of issues very quickly and is not afraid to stand her ground in a hearing. Her cross examination is always on point and her client handing is calm and reassuring.
The Legal 500 (2025) - Employment (Rising Star)
About
May is a specialist employment law barrister. She is listed as a Rising Star in the Legal 500 and Up-and-Coming in Chambers & Partners. She is described as ‘excellent in court’ and her submissions as ‘exceptional’. Recent clients include Asda, Network Rail, Sky, and numerous NHS Trusts.
May regularly appears in the Employment Tribunal for both preliminary and final hearings. She has significant experience with multi-day final hearings, substantive preliminary hearings, and remedy hearings. May has particular expertise in cases involving healthcare and public sector clients, including the NHS, as she completed a secondment at a leading solicitors’ firm working almost exclusively with such clients, and has frequently represented such clients in the Tribunals since then. Recent work includes:
- A 10-day disability discrimination case for a national telecommunications company;
- A 5-day disability discrimination case for the NHS;
- A 1-day preliminary hearing on employment status for a dental surgery;
- A 4-day race discrimination and unfair dismissal case for a national retailer;
- A 2-day remedy hearing where she successfully argued for re-engagement and back-pay.
May welcomes instructions to draft Grounds of Complaint and Grounds of Response. She regularly advises on liability in employment law matters and prides herself on her quick turnaround time for employment papers.
May has written for the ELA’s Employment Law Briefing. She is happy to, and regularly does, provide training talks on employment law issues. She also accepts instructions to provide mock tribunals.
May accepts instructions from both Claimants and Respondents. Recent cases include:
- Success in a 10-day disability discrimination claim for a major telecommunications company.
- A claim for maternity and pregnancy discrimination involving a junior doctor (Dr G Challis v East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Others 2408343/2022)
- Successfully representing the NHS in a six-day disability discrimination claim (Mrs K Bentham v Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust 1801370/2023)
- Obtaining an order for re-engagement for a software engineer, with an award of over £80,000 in back pay
- Successfully representing Sky in a three-day unfair dismissal and race discrimination claim (Maycock v Sky In Home Services Ltd 2305577/2019).
- Successfully representing a national supermarket chain against a claim for race discrimination and unfair dismissal (Olt v Asda Stores Limited 140384/2021).
- Representing BT in a six-day claim for unfair dismissal and whistleblowing detriment.
- Achieving a five-figure settlement following a judicial mediation.
May has experience appearing before Independent Review Panels in relation to permanent exclusions of pupils from schools. She also accepts instructions to advise on issues of law and procedure in this area.
Chambers and Partners (2025) - Employment (Up and Coming) - "She is excellent in court. She is well prepared, courteous and able to command the confidence of the tribunal with able submissions." "May's advocacy skills are excellent. She is calm and composed throughout. No stone goes unturned!" "May has a very good manner with clients/witnesses and is excellent in cross-examination. I would not hesitate to instruct her again."
The Legal 500 (2025) - Employment (Rising Star) - "May is an excellent advocate. She gets to the heart of issues very quickly and is not afraid to stand her ground in a hearing. Her cross examination is always on point and her client handing is calm and reassuring."
- Employment Lawyers Association (ELA)
- Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA)
- The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
Ba v North East London Foundation NHS Trust - successfully defended the Trust against allegations of race discrimination and whistleblowing detriment.
Olt v Asda (Olt v Asda Stores Limited) - successfully defended Asda against claims of race discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Hornsby v Next Distribution Ltd 1802496/2021 - successful claim for wrongful dismissal.
Sidhu v Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust - successfully defended claims of failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Maycock v Sky In-Home Service Ltd - successfully defended claim of unfair dismissal.
June 2024 - Whistleblowing detriment v dismissal, Jhuti vs Malik, published in the ELA Briefing.
June 2023 - Jenkinson v Hertfordshire County Council article, published in AvMA's June newsletter.
June 2023 - 'Jenkinson v Hertfordshire County Council: no special rule for negligent medical treatment', published on localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk (Breaking the chain of causation (localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk)
March 2023 - ‘Failure to remove’ cases: when does the duty of care arise – and what is the impact on the family justice system? Family Law Journal Issue 3 2023, May Martin and Hannah Whitehouse
October 2021 - Religion and Belief Discrimination
April 2022 - Practical Tips in the Employment Tribunal
June 2022 - Personal Injury Case Law Update
- University of Oxford - BA (Jurisprudence) - First Class Honours
- University of Law Leeds – BPTC – Outstanding
- Senior Advocacy Scholar, The University of Law Leeds
- Inner Temple Exhibition Award
- Inner Temple Duke of Edinburgh Award
- Hertford College Prize for FHS Performance
