Biography

Geoffrey R. Stone was born on November 20, 1946 in the Bronx and grew up in Great Neck, New York. He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics in 1968. He then enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Law Review and was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif. Stone graduated cum laude from UChicago Law in 1971 and clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, from 1971-1972. The following year, he clerked for Justice William J. Brennan of the United States Supreme Court. In 1973, Stone joined the UChicago Law faculty as an assistant professor of law.

Stone rose through the ranks at UChicago Law. In 1977, he became an associate professor of law and in 1984, he was named the Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law. His title changed twice more, to the Harry Kalven, Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Law in 1994, and the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law in 2008. Stone served as the ninth dean of UChicago Law from 1987-1993, as well as Provost of the University of Chicago from 1993-2002. Stone also resumed his role as dean of UChicago Law on an interim basis in 2015, between the tenures of Michael H. Schill and Thomas J. Miles.

Stone is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Law Institute, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Advisory Council of the of the American Civil Liberties Union. He formerly served as Chair of the Board of the American Constitution Society.

Stone has received many awards throughout his career, including most recently the 2021 University of Chicago Norman McLean Faculty Award for extraordinary contributions to teaching and student life. He has also received the American Library Association’s James Madison Award (2014); the Kathryn Matkov Award from the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (2010); the University of Chicago’s Provost Award for Outstanding Teaching (2006); and the American Civil Liberties Union’s Harry Kalven Freedom of Expression Award. In 2012, the American Constitution Society named Stone a “Legal Legend.” Stone’s book Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime (2004) earned the Goldsmith Book Prize from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2006) and the American Political Science Association’s Kammerer Award (2005).