Deborah Little’s general commercial litigation practice spans in excess of 30 years with the firm. She is licensed in both Pennsylvania and Florida and practices out of the Pittsburgh and Tampa offices. During the early years of her legal career, Debbie concentrated on insurance coverage actions in the environmental context. Later, she focused her practice on products liability litigation in the medical device, pharmaceutical and automotive industries.
Debbie currently focuses on trust litigation, representing a custodial bank accused of permitting a trustee to loot a trust; trustees sued by the trust beneficiary for alleged breach of fiduciary duty; beneficiaries suing trustees for alleged self-dealing and conflicts of interest; and a corporate trustee which, along with its co-trustees, is accused by the contingent residual beneficiaries of abuse of discretion in distributing all of the trust’s corpus to the primary beneficiary. She also serves as Pennsylvania panel counsel for insurance coverage work for a major group of carriers.
With that background, she now writes product hazard warnings for clients’ user guides, instruction and installation manuals, websites and other marketing materials and has done so for such diverse products as wine pour technology, a wine aerator, fitness equipment, coffee brewers, soda makers, electric juicers, DIY decking and railing products, deck cleaner, hospital-type patient hoists and slings, sneaker deodorizer balls and work boot protectors and laces.
Debbie’s clients always feel as if they are part of a team and play an active role throughout every step of the case. She works closely with clients to develop a litigation strategy and discovery plan, as well as a budget and end goal – all of which are reevaluated with clients as the case progresses, through consistent communication.
Whatever the subject matter of the case, Debbie can quickly get her arms around it, conduct effective cross examinations at depositions or trial, handle expert witnesses and persuade courts. Debbie enjoys the variety of work that she does and the people that she works with, and clients say that it shows.
Education:
- The Ohio State University, J.D., 1985, founding executive director, Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution
- The Pennsylvania State University, B.A., 1982
Affiliations:
- Allegheny County Bar Association , Civil Litigation and Probate & Trust Law Section
- Pennsylvania Bar Association, Probate & Trust Law Section
- Florida Bar Association, Out-of-State Division
- Defense Research Institute
Cost
Rate : $$$