Ernie Stone
After twenty years as a lawyer representing people during the most stressful times of their lives, I have come to believe that most people don’t really care where I went to law school or what bar associations I belong to. I don’t blame them. When we are working together for
months at a time, and sometimes longer, we really get to know each other. What is important is our trust, and how we get along together.
So, the law school and bar association stuff is down below. I think what is important about me, and about my clients, is who we are, and what we are all about.
I am married to a high school teacher. She used to teach biology, then got frustrated that some of her students couldn’t read, so now she teaches reading. I love going to her classroom once in a while to talk with the students about legal issues they have read about. I’m always impressed with how smart they are, even if they don’t realize it.
When I am not representing people in court, I love to fly fish, especially in the rivers and bays of the North Shore. My wife will tell you I don ‘t catch much, but I believe in catch and release, so I don’t bring many fish home to eat.
I am an animal lover, and I have a soft spot for shelter pets. I support wildlife conservation. When I am fishing, I love to see the osprey that live in the marshes of Essex County, and I help keep track of them in the areas I fish.
I am a big baseball fan. I played in college, and then in an amateur league until I was almost 40. My Dad and my Grandfather passed on to me their love of the Red Sox. Among my favorite memories are going to Fenway Park with them as a little boy, and seeing the impossibly green grass as we walked up the ramp from under the stands.
In 1989 I graduated with a degree in history from Middlebury College, in Vermont. I still read a lot of books about history, but I also like mysteries and spy thrillers.
I got my law degree at Washington and Lee University School of Law, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. I enjoyed living in Virginia, but was glad to come back home after school. Virginia is beautiful, but I missed New England.
Here’s the lawyer part:
I started my criminal defense practice in 1996. Since then, I have represented people in State and Federal Courts, at trial and on appeal.
I have never been a prosecutor. Some defense lawyers advertise the fact that they are former prosecutors. Since I began my practice, I have wanted to represent and defend people, not the government. The government has enough power, enough people ready to do its bidding. I have never been one of them.
I want to get to know each client as an individual, to understand as much as I can about what makes them special.
I believe that no one should be judged as a person based upon their worst day or worst mistake.
So that I can stay up to date on the most current ideas and techniques in my profession, I am a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Association for Justice and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys.I am admitted to practice before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and United States District Court.
In law school I was a student director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, where I assisted in defending death-penalty cases. I was also an editor of the Capital Defense Journal.
