Rory Little is Senior Counsel at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm’s Silicon Valley office. While still serving as a tenured Professor at Hastings College of the Law (University of California) in San Francisco, Rory analyzes critical issues for the development of trial-level strategy as well as complex and challenging appellate matters. He personally handles appeals of exceptional importance and urgency.
Since 1994, Rory has served as a professor at Hastings, where he teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, and professional responsibility. He is an active member of the American Bar Association, having served on ABA Standing Committees for Professional Responsibility and for Criminal Justice Standards. He currently serves as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Amicus Briefing Committee, and as Reporter to the American Bar Association's Task Force to Revise the Standards for Criminal Justice, Prosecutor and Defense Functions. Rory lectures nationally on appellate advocacy techniques, criminal law topics and legal ethics. He was recently recognized in the 2010 National Law Journal's Appellate Hot List. The Legal 500 United States2010 and 2011 recognized Rory as one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States.
Rory practiced law for 12 years before entering academia. In addition to three years of private practice, Rory served as a federal prosecutor for the Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Force, prosecuting cases of labor racketeering, money-laundering, narcotics and other organized criminal activity. He also served as the Chief of the Appellate Section for the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of California, and has argued over 50 cases in the federal Courts of Appeal. Most recently, Rory’s governmental service includes a term as an Associate Deputy to Attorney General Janet Reno in the United States Department of Justice, where he managed complex civil, criminal and ethics issues.
Rory served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Louis Oberdorfer in Washington, D.C.. He then served as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (ret.), working on matters before various federal Courts of Appeal and was then hired to clerk full time for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. He also worked two-month stints as law clerk to Justices Lewis F. Powell and John Paul Stevens. While at law school, Rory was Director of the Yale Legal Services Organization and Senior Editor for the Yale Law Journal.
Rory is admitted to practice in California and Washington D.C., and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeal for the Third, Ninth and D.C. Circuits and the Trial bars of the Northern District of California and the District of Columbia.