Jeffrey E. Stone is Co-Chair of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and Chair of the Firm’s Management Committee. He previously served as global head of McDermott’s Trial Department and head of the White-Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group.
In addition to his management roles, Jeffrey is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, who concentrates his practice in the areas of white-collar criminal defense, complex commercial litigation, internal investigations and RICO. He represents corporations, boards of directors, senior executives and other individuals in a variety of complex civil litigation and criminal prosecutions, involving a broad range of industries, including health care, manufacturing and financial services. He has tried more than 40 cases to verdict before juries in federal and state court.
Jeffrey is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is ranked as a leading lawyer in general commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense in the latest editions of both Chambers USA and Chambers Global. He has also been listed by LawDragon as one of the top 500 lawyers in America. He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America and in Who’s Who Legal: Illinois. He is also recognized by The Legal 500 United States as a leading lawyer in his field.
Jeffrey is currently National Chairman of the Stanford Fund (responsible for all annual giving to Stanford University) and a member of the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Development. He has also served as Vice Chair of Stanford's $1 billion Campaign for Undergraduate Education. Jeffrey serves as a national Trustee for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and serves on the advisory board for the Center on Wrongful Convictions. Jeffrey has also served as outside counsel to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, an agency organized under the Illinois Constitution which investigates alleged acts of misconduct and impropriety by members of the Illinois judiciary. He is currently a member of the national Board of Governors for the American Jewish Committee, has served as a board member of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and served as president of the Jewish Family and Community Services agency.
Jeffrey is a frequent lecturer before bar organizations around the United States. He has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School, as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law, and at the United States Attorney General's Advocacy Institute in Washington, D.C. He serves as a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.
Prior to joining McDermott, Jeffrey served in the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago for five years, most recently as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Receiving and Appellate Division. As an Assistant U.S. 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 numerous cases before the U.S. 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 U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Jeffrey is admitted to practice before the Illinois bar, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (trial bar), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Jeffrey received his B.A. with honors and distinction from Stanford University in 1978 and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1983.
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D. (cum laude), 1983
- Stanford University, B.A. (with honors and distinction), 1978
