Michael P. Stone, an “A-V” rated lawyer*, is the founder and principal partner of Stone Busailah, LLP. He also is the founder of Police Litigation Sciences, Inc. He has practiced in law enforcement representation of members, agencies, and organizations since 1979. Previously he was employed as a police officer, police supervisor, and police attorney, and has served in three municipal police departments from 1967 to 1979.

He is General Counsel for the Los Angeles Police Command Officers Association (Captains, Commanders, and Deputy Chiefs), for the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association Legal Defense Trust, Riverside Sheriffs’ Association, and a number of other Southern California police associations. Formerly General Counsel for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, he continues to serve as a panel attorney for the League. He represents law enforcement as a panel attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

Michael P. Stone is an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police- Legal Officers Section (IACP), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, the Marine Corps University Foundation (Staff and Command College), the Marine Corps Association & Foundation, and the Marines’ Memorial Association.

With expertise in police use of force policy and training, he regularly instructs force trainers for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and other agencies nationwide. He served as a faculty member of the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement (AELE) and the Labor Relations Information System (LRIS), and lectures in national programs for government counsel and law enforcement executives and officials. He also taught at Harvard Law School in Harvard Labor Program’s semi-annual “Big Fifty” leadership program on campus.

Since 1976, Michael P. Stone has taught and trained thousands of police employees, supervisors, managers, executives, and government counsel in local and national programs, primarily focusing on constitutional law, civil rights, Brady law, advocacy skills, police liability, police press relations, criminal procedure, evidence, community relations, and other police litigation subjects. Throughout his career, he has emphasized the importance of training as a key factor in reducing liability exposure.

As a police attorney, he managed civil liability for the Orange Police Department and represented the Department in all police litigation matters. In November 2019, he passed his 52nd year in the business of policing and “defending those who protect others.”

A POST instructor since 1976, Michael P. Stone has been training internal affairs investigators, attorneys, police managers, and employee representatives for over 35 years for the Center for Criminal Justice Research and Training at California State University, Long Beach.

He regularly represents individual, local, state, and federal officers and officials as conflict counsel for the City of Los Angeles (tort, civil rights, and employment law), and the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Torts Branch, Washington D.C. (Bivens actions, Bureau of Prisons prison litigation, DEA, ICE, V.A. physicians and surgeons, and Qui Tam litigation).

He received diplomas from the National Institute of Trial Advocacy Notre Dame Law School as an Advanced Advocate (1987), Advocacy Teacher (1989), and Master Advocate (1991). Michael P. Stone is an LAPD Specialist Volunteer, formerly a Specialist Reserve Officer.