Jimmy is the founder of Dignity Rights Advocates. He is Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University, where he teaches human dignity rights and other courses. He is co-founder of the Dignity Rights Program at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he serves as Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus. May led efforts for the American Bar Association’s official recognition of human dignity as “foundational to the just rule of law,” and is a founder and Presidential appointee of the ABA’s Dignity Rights Initiative. In 2023 he received the ABA’s Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy, in part for his work advancing human dignity under law.

May has published extensively about dignity rights, including the Advanced Introduction to Human Dignity and the Law (Edward Elgar 2021); Dignity Law: Global Recognition, Cases and Perspectives (W.S. Hein 2020); Dignity Under Law: A Global Handbook for Civil Society (2021); Dignity Under Law: A Global Handbook for Jurists (2021);  Dignity Rights for a Pandemic, 17 Law Culture, and the Humanities (2021); Human Dignity and Environmental Outcomes in Pakistan, 10 Pakistan L. Rev. 1 (2019); Why Dignity Rights Matter, 19 European Human Rights L. Rev. 129 (2019); Putting Dignity in Practice: Implementing the American Bar Association’s Recognition of Human Dignity As Foundational to the Rule of Law (2023 American Bar Association); “Dignity Law and Practice in America,” Report to the House of Delegates. (2020 American Bar Association).

May’s forthcoming work, “Dignity Rights in America,” Vienna Jrnl. International Constitutional Law (2025), examines the role of human dignity in U.S. law at the national and subnational level regarding discrimination, criminal justice, reproductive rights, climate change and other areas.

May has litigated dignity-advancing human rights and environmental cases pro bono publico throughout the United States, the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, and various UN bodies, including landmark cases of Juliana v. U.S., American Electric Power v. Connecticut, Village of Kivalina v. U.S., Held v. Montana, Comer v. Murphy Oil, and Massachusetts v. the U.S. EPA.

May is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. He serves as the Presidential Appointee Special Legal Advisor to the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Environmental Justice and a Consultant to the United Nations in various human rights-based capacities. He has received numerous awards including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas School of Law, the H. Albert Young Constitutional Law Award and Douglas E. Ray Scholarship Award at Widener University Delaware Law, and the Robinson Environmental Law Award at Haub School of Law at Pace University, He has also received awards from the Sierra Club and the American Canoe Association for his legal advocacy as a federal litigator working pro bono to enforce the nation’s environmental and natural resources laws. LawDragon and Martindale Hubbard have recognized May as a leading lawyer in the U.S. and around the globe.

May received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Bowman Scholar) and J.D. (National Environmental Law Moot Court Champion, Appellate Advocacy Instructor) from the University of Kansas and LL.M. in Environmental Law from Haub School of Law at Pace University (Feldschuh Fellow).