About Jeffrey
Jeffrey Tone earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Princeton University in 1971 and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1978. His academic path combined liberal arts grounding with professional legal training, a background that preceded two federal clerkships early in his career.
After law school, Tone served as a law clerk to Judge Prentice H. Marshall of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1978. Two years later he moved to the United States Supreme Court, where he clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens in 1980. Those clerkships placed him at the intersection of trial and appellate work and gave him direct exposure to federal judicial decision-making at high levels.
Tone entered private practice following his Supreme Court clerkship and joined Sidley Austin LLP, where he became a partner in 1981. He remained in private practice for decades, taking on roles that required appearances in federal courts across multiple circuits. In 2011 he became a partner at Katten & Temple LLP. Over the years he has maintained active admissions in Illinois and Wisconsin and holds admission to practice in several federal courts and circuit courts, including the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Circuits, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (trial bar and general), the Central District of Illinois and the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Tone has been a member of the Illinois State Bar since 1978. That long tenure reflects steady engagement with the bar and the federal court system where much of his practice has taken place. Colleagues and court records show a career built on repeated federal appearances and on work that spans both district courts and courts of appeals.
Those experiences have shaped a practice oriented around litigation in federal forums. He has handled matters that required admission to multiple circuit courts and to trial bars in federal district courts. He draws on years of courthouse experience and on the perspective gained from two significant clerkships earlier in his professional life.
He currently practices at Katten & Temple, LLP, where he handles federal litigation matters.
