Mr. Jones, a graduate of UCLA and Loyola Law School (Los Angeles), began his career as a prosecutor, serving as a Deputy District Attorney first in Los Angeles, and then in Monterey County.

​

In 1999, Mr. Jones joined Beck, DeCorso, Daly, Kreindler and Harris, becoming a partner in 2003, and remaining with the firm until its dissolution at the end of 2007. Mr. Jones handled several cases at BDDKH that attracted local and national media attention, including: embezzlement charges against the producer of a major motion picture (which were eventually dismissed); charges arising from what was, at the time, the largest seizure of allegedly counterfeit software in U.S. history; and allegations of illegal campaign contributions, as to which he obtained probation for a client against whom the Federal Election Commission had previously levied its largest individual administrative fine to date.

 

Subsequently, Mr. Jones assisted a well-known Long Beach-based maritime firm with the defense of ship owners/managers/operators, in several vessel pollution cases prosecuted by local U.S. Attorneys, and/or DOJ's Environmental Crimes Section - including the "allision" of the M.V. Cosco Busan with the Oakland Bay Bridge.

 

At the conclusion of those matters, in September 2009, Mr. Jones opened The Law Office of Stephen P. Jones. As a sole practitioner, Mr. Jones continued to represent companies and individuals in a wide range of "white collar" matters, including representation of employee witnesses, both in the grand jury and at trial, in only the second Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case to go to trial in the Central District of California. (In which charges were dismissed after the verdict, due to pervasive prosecutorial misconduct.)

 

In the summer of 2013, Mr. Jones, along with Andrew B. Holmes and Matthew D. Taylor, formed what is now Holmes, Athey, Cowan & Mermelstein LLP. In 2017, Mr. Jones resolved an eleven-year LAUSD and LADA investigation into allegations that a district contractor's president and his company had aided and abetted a district procurement employee's multi-year embezzlement (prior to his death by suicide) of more than $13 million -- by the payment of partial restitution, and service of 25 weekends in city jail, after which charges were reduced to a misdemeanor, and then expunged. In 2018, Mr. Jones resolved a case in which the government initially alleged $6 million in securities fraud losses, for a plea to $65,000.00 in bankruptcy fraud losses, restitution in that amount, and four months' home confinement.

 

Mr. Jones continues to emphasize the representation of companies and professionals in "white collar" criminal matters, in criminal matters likely to affect individuals' professional licenses, and in administrative licensing matters arising from criminal charges and/or convictions.

 

Mr. Jones’s other representative matters, over nearly 25 years of criminal defense practice, also include:

​

• conspiracy charges against a box manufacturer for allegedly aiding and abetting copier toner cartridge counterfeiters (Mr. Jones’s client pled to a misdemeanor);

• insurance fraud charges against one of the alleged leaders of a multi-million dollar staged-accident scheme;

• an extradition request by the government of South Korea, related to an investigation of an executive/investor who subsequently became that country’s president;

• representation of eighteen Chief Engineers employed by a Taiwanese ship owner, in a multi-district prosecution under the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (none of Mr. Jones’s clients were prosecuted, though the company was convicted, and paid fines in excess of $25 million);

• numerous matters for ship’s officers and engineers investigated for alleged violations of federal maritime environmental laws;

• outright dismissal (upon a defense motion litigated over several months) of an indictment obtained by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section, alleging False Statement Act violations in the transportation of hazardous materials;

• alleged internet threats against a former U.S. presidential candidate (Mr. Jones’s client received probation, with mental health monitoring conditions);

• alleged criminal violations of Cal-OSHA regulations, and related statutes, in workplace fatalities;

• allegations of federal mail, wire, and securities fraud (including several multi-million dollar “Ponzi Scheme cases);

• resolution of allegations of tax evasion, “prevailing wage” (public contracting) fraud, credit card fraud, and escrow fraud, by plea agreements to non-custodial sentences;

• charges against physicians and other health care professionals accused of crimes potentially impacting their licenses;

• defense of professional license holders facing administrative actions against their licenses arising from criminal convictions; and

• representation of privilege holders contesting the search and seizure of patient/ client electronic records under color of search warrants.

​​