Joseph L Stone

Joseph L. Stone

August 21, 1933 — December 31, 2025

Joseph L. Stone died peacefully at home on December 31 surrounded by his family. Joe was born in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, graduating from Penn Elementary and Senn High School. He earned a BS from the University of Wisconsin and a JD from Northwestern University.

A respected leader in the Chicago legal community, Joe’s law practice focused on corporate, real estate, mediation & arbitration. Joe was of counsel at Seyfarth Shaw and the founding director of the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law Business Law Clinic and held the inaugural Randy and Melvin Berlin Professorship of Business Law.

He held many leadership positions, including President of the Chicago Bar Association, Chair of the Legal Education Committee, the Development of Law Committee, the Public Affairs Committee, and the Entertainment Committee. He served as President of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, as well as on numerous other legal and communal boards. Joe performed in the Bar Association’s Christmas Spirits Bar Show from 1962-2024, most notably and famously with his dear friend and co-conspirator Fred Lane.

Joe was honored in 2016 as a Justice John Paul Stevens Fellow. He was a board member and fellow of The International Academy of Dispute Resolution (INADR) and received their Lifetime Achievement Award. Joe also gave generously of his time, volunteered with the Circuit Court Cook County 1st Municipal District Pro se Court and at the Cook County Elder Law Clinic, among other organizations.

Joe loved tennis, theater, and was a fan of Chicago sports teams and the Wisconsin Badgers. His greatest love, however, was his family. He will be remembered as a loving and devoted husband, father, brother, grandfather, uncle, and friend—and as a model of integrity and generosity, and how to live a good and worthy life.

Joe was predeceased by his parents Al and Ann Stone, and his sister Eileen Fuerstenberg. He is survived by his wife Sylvia (née Bachman); sister Joyce Braunstein; daughters, Andrea (Curt) Zuckert, Stephanie (Daniel) Stone, and Jennifer (Tom) Gruger; and his grandchildren Max, Sam (Katie), and Anni Zuckert, Zachary (Hadas) Pekarsky, Henry (Ally) and Clara Gruger.

Donations in Joe’s memory can be made to: Greater Chicago Food Depository (https://giving.chicagosfoodbank.org), America Civil Liberties Union (https://action.aclu.org/give/now), Evanston Community Foundation (https://evanston.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/)