Ms. Felicia C. Adams was confirmed as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi on July 3, 2011. Ms. Adams is a twenty-two year veteran with the Department of Justice, having begun her career as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Mississippi in 1989. Most recently, Ms. Adams served as First Assistant in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi. During her eleven year tenure in that office, Ms. Adams also served as Deputy Civil Chief from 2005 to 2010 during which time she handled complex civil litigation in the areas of employment discrimination, constitutional tort claims and qui tam actions brought pursuant to the False Claims Act. Additionally, she was a member of the Criminal Appellate Section and also served as Ethics Officer.
From 1989 to 2000, Ms. Adams was an AUSA in the Northern District of Mississippi. She was assigned to the Civil Division where she handled tort claims, constitutional tort cases, employment discrimination cases, land cases and bankruptcy matters. Moreover, Ms. Adams also worked in the Financial Litigation Unit collecting debts owed to the United States. In 1998, she transferred to the Criminal Division where she prosecuted drug cases as a member of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Prior to coming to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Adams was legal counsel to former Governor Ray Mabus, who is currently Secretary of the Navy. Ms. Adams also worked as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Mississippi as a member of the Capital Litigation Section where she wrote appellate briefs and argued death penalty cases before the Mississippi Supreme Court. During this period, Ms. Adams was a member of the Execution Task Force which handled the executions of Edward Earl Johnson on May 20, 1987 and Lonnie Ray Evans on July 8, 1987. Ms. Adams was also a law clerk for the Honorable Odell Horton, Jr., United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. She is a 1984 graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law. She received her undergraduate degree from Jackson State University in 1981.