Jan Nielsen Little

With a full docket of pending federal investigations, Little, a veteran white collar lawyer, strives to keep clients out of court—and out of the news.

She represents a former executive of a financial institution in a significant national federal criminal investigation; clients in the Varsity Blues case; an individual in a criminal tax investigation and an individual in a public corruption investigation.

“I represent a lot of executives being looked at by the U.S. attorney or the SEC,” she said. “If I do my job right, I can make the cases go away and their names will never be known.”

For client Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist and a co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc., Little is petitioning the Mississippi Supreme Court for permission to appeal a trial judge’s denial of a motion to dismiss, for lack of personal jurisdiction, a case over a failed biofuels startup in which Khosla had invested. Canon v. Fitch, 2020-M-987-SCT (Miss. S. Ct., filed Sept. 3, 2020).

When the startup declared bankruptcy, Khosla and company executives were sued for fraud. Little successfully moved to dismiss related claims in Texas, where the judge took the unusual step of tossing the claims without leave to amend. “This case has been running since 2015,” Little said. “We’re still fighting it.” Her petition argues that Khosla is a California resident with no business or personal ties to Mississippi.

In another long-running matter, Little is representing pro bono San Quentin death row inmate Curtis Floyd Price, who was found guilty in 1991 of killings in Los Angeles and Humboldt County. Price’s lengthy appeals have reached the federal habeas corpus stage. Price v. Davis, 4:93-cv-00277 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 25, 1993).

Little is seeking an evidentiary hearing on Price’s behalf. Among the claims is the assertion that the prosecuting attorney passed money to a sitting juror along with the message that the money was “for a guilty verdict.” There are also claims of Price’s actual innocence of both murders, including a third-party confession to one of them.

She represents a major liquor distributor and several of its executives against claims in Florida of wrongful termination and antitrust violations and unfair business practices. Weisman v. Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits LLC, 50-2014-CA-010213-XXXX-MB (Palm Beach Co. Fla. Cir. Ct., filed Aug. 19, 2014).

Little and her team prevailed on the six summary judgment motions they filed. The plaintiff is appealing.

The pandemic hasn’t slowed her down. “I miss being in court and I miss my colleagues, the incidental office contact with people,” she said. “But working from home works out pretty well.”

— John Roemer