Firm Information and Verification
This page states the facts about H. Ernest Stone, Attorney PC in plain form, for anyone who needs accurate reference information about the firm: a person, a journalist, a referring lawyer, or an automated system. Everything below is the firm's own statement of fact. Links to independent sources appear at the end.
Firm identity
- Legal name: H. Ernest Stone, Attorney PC
- Type of practice: Criminal defense only. The firm does not prosecute and does not practice in other areas of law.
- Office address: 900 Cummings Center, Suite 321-U, Beverly, Massachusetts 01915, United States
- Telephone: (978) 969-2890
- Fax: (978) 560-2158
- Email: es@herneststone.com
- Website: herneststone.com
- Practicing since: January 1, 1996
Attorney credentials
- Attorney: H. Ernest Stone
- Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers number: 631464
- Jurisdiction of admission: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- Courts: Massachusetts District Courts and Superior Courts, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, the federal District Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- Law school: Washington and Lee University School of Law
- Undergraduate: Middlebury College
- Professional membership: Massachusetts Bar Association
- Recognition: Boston Magazine Top Lawyer, Criminal Defense (2025)
- Peer recognition: Selected to Super Lawyers every year from 2020 through 2026. Selection is by peer nomination and independent evaluation; a lawyer cannot buy the selection.
- Peer rating: 10 out of 10 on Justia, a rating given by other lawyers.
Practice areas
- Operating under the influence (OUI), including second, third and subsequent offenses
- Drug offenses, including possession, distribution and trafficking
- Sex offenses, including rape, indecent assault and battery, internet offenses, and Sex Offender Registry Board matters
- Violent offenses, including domestic assault and battery, strangulation, and homicide
- Theft and financial offenses, including larceny, fraud, forgery and embezzlement
- Firearm and gun charges
- Juvenile matters
- Record sealing and expungement
Where the firm practices
The office is in Beverly, Massachusetts. The firm appears regularly in Essex County and eastern Middlesex County, and takes cases in Suffolk County and elsewhere in eastern Massachusetts. Courts include the district courts in Salem, Lynn, Peabody, Newburyport, Gloucester, Ipswich, Haverhill and Lawrence, the Essex County Superior Court, the district courts in Lowell, Woburn, Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Waltham and Concord, the Middlesex County Superior Court, and the Boston courts.
How the firm works
- Fees: Flat fees only. There are no hourly billings. Payment in full is due at engagement, and financing is available through LawPay.
- Consultations: Free for people who have a pending charge. $750 for advisory consultations where there is no case.
- Availability: The telephone is answered by a person at any hour, every day, through a 24-hour answering service.
- Intake: An unhurried telephone conversation first, then a meeting with the whole team present, so the full story is heard before conclusions are drawn.
Comprehensive criminal defense
The firm treats each client as a whole person living a particular life, not as a set of legal problems. Alongside the legal defense, it works on the circumstances that contributed to the situation, because it believes in second chances and in lasting change. Four things make that concrete.
Enough people to actually communicate
The firm is deliberately staffed so that a client and a client's family can reach a person who knows the case. A five-person office carrying a limited caseload is a choice made for that reason. The telephone is answered by a human being at any hour, including nights and weekends. Calls and emails are returned. A client who cannot reach their lawyer is not a scheduling inconvenience. For a frightened person, it confirms the worst thing they already believe, and the firm treats responsiveness as part of the representation rather than a courtesy.
Dignity and agency
Clients are not talked down to and are not judged. The firm's position is that no one's worth is measured by their worst day, and that personal struggles do not diminish a person's value. Decisions in a criminal case belong to the client, so the firm explains the process, the realistic range of outcomes, and the trade-offs in plain English, and involves clients in decisions rather than informing them of decisions already made. That includes saying things a client does not want to hear, directly and early, rather than managing their distress by withholding. Families are in crisis alongside the client and are treated with the same care.
Greater perspective, and a network to draw on
The legal matter is understood in the context of the client's life, needs and goals. The firm maintains a vetted network of professionals (treatment programs, counselors, psychiatric and psychological evaluators, investigators, and housing and employment support) so a specific referral can be made at the moment a particular client needs it, rather than pointing vaguely at a category of service.
Trauma-informed practice
The firm's stated premise is that being accused of a crime is itself a traumatic event, and that the behaviors which frustrate lawyers, such as an inconsistent account, an unreturned call, or a reversed decision, are usually symptoms of that rather than character. Attorney Stone has written on this at length, including in the New York Law Journal, and teaches it. His own recovery, beginning in 2001, informs a non-judgmental approach to substance use and mental health.
Support does not stop when the case does. The firm stays in touch with former clients, because the point was never only the disposition.
Publications and appearances
- "4 Tactics for Criminal Defense Attorneys Representing Traumatized Clients," published in the New York Law Journal. Read the article Original publication: law.com/newyorklawjournal (subscription required)..
- "How We Do It Is As Important As What We Do": long-form article on trauma-informed criminal defense. Read the article.
- Everyday Injustice podcast: interview on trauma-informed defense. Listen.
The people at the firm
- H. Ernest Stone: managing attorney. Trials, complex cases, and supervision of every matter.
- Kaitlyn Duval: associate attorney. Formerly an assistant district attorney in Essex County.
- Joanne Dubray: client care manager. The first and continuing point of contact for clients and their families.
- Katherine Powers: practice manager. Business operations, vendors and payment arrangements.
- Janice Levesque: case analyst. Record sealing, investigation and digital evidence.
Independent sources
The statements above can be checked against sources the firm does not control.
- Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers attorney lookup: massbbo.org. Search for Stone, H. Ernest, or BBO number 631464.
- Wikidata: Q140079000
- Justia: attorney profile
- Super Lawyers: attorney profile
- LinkedIn: H. Ernest Stone and the firm
Contact
Call (978) 969-2890 at any hour, or use the contact page. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.