In 1972, Jon May was admitted to Emory University where he graduated in 1976. His sophomore year at Emory, Jon became the managing editor of the school newspaper, the Emory Wheel. His junior year he became the editor of the school literary magazine, the Archon, and his senior year he presented a school-wide symposium on the 1930s, “The 1930s Symposium”. He then attended the University of Florida where he was on the international moot court team and competed in the Jessup International Moot Court competition. He was also the editor of a consumer rights handbook that was distributed throughout Florida.  After graduating from law school in 1978, Jon May began his career as a public defender, representing indigents in criminal appeals for the Public Defender’s office in West Palm Beach, Florida. Within a year of graduating, he argued his first case before the Supreme Court of Florida, and within a year later, was moved to the Capital Appeals section. In 1981, Mr. May was hired to run the appellate division of the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida while the chief of the division was on maternity leave. Over the next four years, he argued numerous cases before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He also assisted the Public Corruption Section in supervising wiretaps of public officials suspected of corruption.

​

           In 1986, Jon May left the U.S. Attorney’s Office to open his own practice with his wife Carol Cohen, May & Cohen P.A. As a federal criminal defense attorney, he represented criminal defendants in trials and appeals around the country. Later, he joined Jones Walker LLP, as part of its Miami White Collar team. There, he worked on federal cases involving allegations of fraud by a low income housing developer, the never proven theft of $4 billion from the government of Venezuela by a Venezuelan businessmen, and espionage by a Chinese national.

At the beginning of 2022, Jon May started his own firm Jon May-Team Defense, which is now called Creative Criminal Defense Consultants.