Jeffrey E. Stone

Jeffrey E. Stone is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who has tried over 40 federal and state jury trials to verdict, in addition to having tried dozens of bench trials, arbitrations and contested regulatory hearings. A Fellow and Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers, he concentrates his practice on white-collar criminal defense, complex commercial litigation, internal investigations, and counseling to boards of directors and senior business executives.

In his over 40 years as a trial lawyer, he has represented corporations, boards of directors, board committees, executives and other individuals in a variety of complex civil litigation and criminal prosecutions involving a broad range of industries, including health care, manufacturing, Tobacco, high technology and financial services. He has been named one of the top trial lawyers in the country by Lawdragon 500 and has been ranked for many years in Chambers and Best Lawyers in America for Bet–the–Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and White-Collar Criminal Defense. He is consistently named one of the Top 10 Lawyers in Chicago. 

He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Legal Action Chicago, an advocacy/litigation organization focused on impact litigation affecting low-income individuals.  He serves as a Board member, and has served as Chair of the Board, of ALAS which is the largest mutual insurance company representing law firms in the world.  He also serves as a member of the Executive Council of the American Jewish Committee and as chair of its International Relations Commission.  He recently completed a six year term as a Trustee of Stanford University.

During his 32-year tenure at McDermott, Jeffrey has served as chairman of the Firm, Global head of McDermott’s Trial Department and head of the White-Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group.

A frequent teacher on both law and leadership, Jeff has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School, as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, and at the US Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University teaching leadership. In 2022, Jeff co-taught at Stanford Law School on developments in the law that are emerging after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Prior to joining McDermott, Jeffrey served in the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago as an Assistant US Attorney, concluding his tenure as deputy chief of the Criminal Receiving and Appellate Division. As an Assistant US Attorney, he tried numerous federal jury trials in the area of white-collar crime, focusing on complex financial crime, fraud, public corruption and tax prosecutions. He also argued and supervised numerous cases before the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From 1983 to 1984, he served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Robert F. Peckham of the US District Court in San Francisco.