Rory K. Little

Hon. Raymond L. Sullivan Professor of Law and Emeritus Joseph W. Cotchett Chair and Emeritus Joseph W. Cotchett Chair

Office: 338-200
Email: littler@uclawsf.edu
Phone: (415)-225-5190

Bio

Professor Little is a Sullivan Professor and the Emeritus Joseph W. Cotchett chair holder at UC Law SF. He joined the faculty in 1994, after a distinguished 12-year career as a practicing litigator, prosecutor, criminal defense and appellate lawyer. He is a nationally recognized authority on constitutional issues, criminal law and ethics, federal criminal law, and appellate litigation, and professional responsibility. He instituted and has chaired the Hastings Faculty Committee on Judicial Clerkships for many years. On at least, three occasions he has been awarded the “Best Professor” designation by the UC Law SF third-year class.

Professor Little regularly teaches Constitutional Law One and Two; first-year Criminal Law; Constitutional Criminal Procedure; Federal Criminal Law and Procedure, and Professional Responsibility – although not all in the same academic year. His favorite service activity is counseling students on career strategies and varied professional issues. In addition, he does substantial pro bono work for the profession. He is a regular Bay Area media personality, appearing regularly in print and on radio and, television. He was a regular contributor about U.S. Supreme Court criminal law cases for Scotusblog.com for over a decade. He has been very active in the American Bar Association and other Bar groups; for example, he annually publishes a “Review of the Supreme Court’s Term: Criminal Cases” for the ABA Criminal Justice Section and runs their annual “showcase panel” on that topic. He has served for over a decade as the Reporter to the ABA’s Task Force to Revise the Criminal Justice Standards, Prosecution and Defense Functions. He has been appointed to the ABA’s national Committee on Professional Responsibility; the ABA’s national Amicus Briefing Committee; the Council of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section; and the Executive Committee of the Federal Bar Association (N.D. Cal. chapter).

Professor Little is an active member of the California State Bar, and an inactive member of the Washington D.C. Bar. He occasionally serves as an expert witness in litigation matters; and previously served as Of Counsel to the international law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery.

In 1996-97, Professor Little took a leave from UC Hastings and served in the U.S. Department of Justice as an Associate Deputy Attorney General (“ADAG”) for Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick. Prior to joining the UC Law SF faculty he served as the Appellate Chief for the Northern District of California U.S. Attorney’s office; he has orally argued over 60 federal (and a few state court) appeals, and briefed hundreds more. He also served for 2½ years as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Force. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Professor Little worked on white collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation matters with the Washington D.C. law firm of Miller Cassidy Larrocca & Lewin. He began his litigation career representing federal prisoners with the Yale Law School Prison Litigation Project and successfully won an unconditional habeas corpus release after arguing the case in federal district court as a second-year law student (see 496 F.Supp. 1111). His highest professional honor was to represent Georgia death row inmate Brandon Jones, whom the state executed (after losing a 6-5 vote in the Eleventh Circuit and a 4-3 vote in the Georgia Supreme Court) in 2016.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Professor Little served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer (Washington DC); and then Justice Potter Stewart (ret.), working on matters before the First, Third and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. and John Paul Stevens at the U.S. Supreme Court. In that same year (OT 1984) Professor Little also did work for Justices Powell and Chief Justice Burger—a hard-working, one-year experience. His published account of that unique year is here.

Professor Little was born and raised in New Jersey, and holds a double B.A. from the University of Virginia. He raised three children in northern California with his wife who is a prominent white collar defense attorney. Professor Little, now divorced, now lives part-time in Sunnyvale, California and Greenfield, Massachusetts. Long ago he used to run marathons (2:45 best) and can occasionally be seen in running regalia, still staggering along.