SELECT TOP 1 Previous.*
  from People as Previous
  join People as This on Previous.LastName < This.LastName or Previous.LastName = This.LastName and Previous.FirstName < This.FirstName
 WHERE This.ID = 15
 ORDER BY Previous.LastName DESC, Previous.FirstName DESC

##</code><code>##

SELECT TOP 1 *
  from People
 WHERE LastName < 'Doe' or LastName = 'Doe' and FirstName < 'Joe'
 ORDER BY Previous.LastName DESC, Previous.FirstName DESC