After attending state schools in Kent, Lord Justice Males studied at St John’s College Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1978. Sir Stephen was a member of 20 Essex Street, and specialised in international trade and sales, shipping, banking, and international commercial arbitration. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1998, and sat as a Recorder, as a Deputy High Court Judge, and as a commercial arbitrator before becoming a Queen’s Bench Judge in 2012. Sir Stephen was a Presiding Judge on the North Eastern Circuit from 2015 to 2018. He has been a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2019.

Lord Justice Males has been a Lay Canon of Rochester Cathedral since 2008.