(1912 - 2001)
E. Stewart Jones Sr. was a nationally renowned criminal defense and personal injury trial attorney who was a legal pioneer in the fields of medical negligence and products liability.
A lifelong Troy, New York, resident, Stewart Sr. graduated from Williams College and Albany Law School. In 1939, he took over his father's firm and partnered with Arthur L. Rosen. While Stewart's father's career brought him great stature in the Capital Region, it was the courtroom skill, creativity and courage of his son, E. Stewart Jones, Sr., which gained the firm statewide and national recognition for its outstanding results. Stewart Sr. was ably complemented by the brilliant and witty Art Rosen. As Stewart once said: "He (Rosen) made the bullets, and I shot them.
Stewart Sr.s legendary and impassioned summations made him a local and national courtroom legend. He often appeared so impassioned that he would smash a pair of eyeglasses against the table, reducing the jury to tears. In the case of a severely burned client, he held a lit match to his hand burning himself and challenging the jurors to do the same. He had a tremendous talent to demonstrate sincerity and compassion. When it came to his opening and his closing arguments, lawyers would come to see him from all around. It was like a continuing education course for lawyers.
In 1978, Stewart Sr. pioneered a day-in-the-life film of a young man rendered quadriplegic in a car crash involving a defective Chrysler ball joint. The result was the first multimillion-dollar verdict in New York state and Stewarts admission into the Inner Circle.
