Rory Little 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 College of the Law (University of California) in San Francisco, where he teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, and professional responsibility. Rory lectures nationally on appellate advocacy techniques, criminal law topics and legal ethics.
Rory practiced law for 12 years before entering academia. In addition to three years of private practice, he 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 US Attorney’s office for the Northern District of California, and has argued more than 50 cases in courts of appeals at the federal level. His governmental service includes a term as an associate deputy to Attorney General Janet Reno in the US Department of Justice, where he managed complex civil, criminal and ethics issues.
Rory served as a law clerk for US District Judge Louis Oberdorfer in Washington, DC. He then served as law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (retired), working on matters before various federal courts of appeals 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.
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