After graduating from Columbia Law School, Stone took a position teaching at his alma mater. He taught there until 1923, the last thirteen years as law school dean. While teaching at Columbia, Stone also practiced law at the firm Sullivan & Cromwell. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge tabbed Stone to serve as U.S. attorney general. A year later, Coolidge nominated Stone to the Supreme Court, where he served as an associate justice for seventeen years until his tenure as chief justice began.