HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT LAW
Higher Education & Faculty Employment: Protecting Careers Built on Scholarship
An academic career is unlike any other. Tenure decisions turn on confidential peer review. Discipline is governed by faculty handbooks, appointment letters, and shared-governance procedures rather than ordinary at-will rules. A single Title IX complaint, research-misconduct inquiry, or department vote can end a career that took decades to build.
Higher Education Employment: Understanding Your Rights
The D.C. and Maryland region is one of the densest higher-education markets in the country, from the public University System of Maryland to the private research universities that dominate the District. The rules differ sharply between them: faculty at public institutions hold constitutional due-process and First Amendment protections that private-university faculty do not, while private-university faculty often have stronger contract claims grounded in handbooks and appointment documents. We know both frameworks, and we use whichever one protects you. Our employment discrimination and whistleblower retaliation practices reach into academia as well — discrimination and retaliation law applies on campus just as it does in any other workplace.
How We Help Faculty and University Employees
Each area below has its own dedicated page. Together they cover the disputes we see most often in higher education.
Tenure Denial & Revocation
Tenure decisions are entitled to academic deference — but they are not immune from the law. Universities cannot deny or revoke tenure for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons, and the Supreme Court has held that peer-review files are not privileged in discrimination cases. We challenge flawed tenure decisions and defend tenure already earned.
Faculty Discipline, Dismissal & Academic Freedom
Faculty handbooks, appointment letters, and AAUP-informed policies create real contractual rights — to notice, to a hearing before peers, to dismissal only for cause. When a university shortcuts its own procedures or targets a professor over teaching or scholarship, we hold it to its promises.
Discrimination & Harassment in Higher Education
Title VII, the D.C. Human Rights Act, and Maryland’s FEPA fully apply to universities. Discrimination in hiring, pay, promotion, and tenure — and harassment by colleagues, chairs, or students — is unlawful on campus just as anywhere else.
Title IX & Campus Investigations
Faculty and staff appear on both sides of Title IX proceedings — as complainants reporting misconduct and as respondents facing accusations. These investigations move fast, follow specialized regulations, and carry career-ending stakes. We guide employees through the process and protect their rights at every stage.
Public vs. Private Universities: Why It Matters
Public Universities
At Maryland’s public institutions and other state universities, faculty are government employees. Tenured professors typically hold a property interest in continued employment, which triggers constitutional due process — notice and a meaningful hearing — before dismissal. Public-university faculty also retain First Amendment rights, and the federal appellate court covering Maryland has recognized that a professor’s teaching and scholarship occupy special constitutional ground.
Private Universities
At private universities — including most of the District’s major institutions — the Constitution does not govern the employment relationship. There, the contract is king: the faculty handbook, the appointment letter, the bylaws, and the university’s own written procedures define your rights, and courts will enforce them. Statutory protections against discrimination, retaliation, and disability bias apply at both. The first step in any academic-employment case is identifying which framework — constitutional, contractual, or statutory — gives you the most leverage. Often it is more than one.
Who We Represent
- Tenured and tenure-track faculty facing denial, revocation, discipline, or non-renewal
- Adjunct and contingent faculty, lecturers, and clinical or research professors
- Postdoctoral researchers and principal investigators in grant-funded disputes
- Deans, chairs, provosts, and senior administrators negotiating appointments and exit
- Coaches, athletics staff, and university employees in Title IX matters
- University staff — admissions, advancement, IT, facilities — with discrimination, retaliation, and contract claims
Why Wilkenfeld Law Office
Academic-employment cases demand fluency in two languages: the law’s and the academy’s. Principal attorney Ari Wilkenfeld has spent over 27 years representing employees in the region’s most sensitive workplace disputes, including matters involving universities, research institutions, and federal grant-funded science. We understand shared governance, peer review, and promotion-and-tenure committees — and we understand how to translate what happened in a department meeting into a claim a court will recognize. When a negotiated resolution serves you better than litigation, our severance and executive contract practice secures it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really need a lawyer who knows higher education, or will any employment lawyer do?
Academic cases run on documents and procedures most workplaces do not have — peer-review files, promotion-and-tenure criteria, shared-governance hearings, AAUP-informed handbooks. A lawyer who does not speak that language spends your case learning it. We translate what happened in the department meeting into a claim a court will recognize.
My university is private. Do I have fewer rights than faculty at a state school?
Different rights, not necessarily fewer. Public-university employees hold constitutional due-process and First Amendment protections; private-university employees typically have stronger contract claims built on handbooks and appointment documents, and the discrimination and retaliation statutes apply fully at both. The first step is identifying which framework gives you the most leverage — often it is more than one.
I’m university staff, not faculty. Do you handle my situation too?
Yes. Discrimination, retaliation, disability accommodation, and contract claims for staff — admissions, advancement, athletics, IT, facilities — are a regular part of this practice, and staff are routinely pulled into Title IX and other campus investigations where early advice matters just as much.
Related practice areas
Your situation may also involve one of these related areas of employment law:
Bottom Line
Universities have general counsel, outside firms, and processes they wrote themselves. The employees on the other side — faculty and staff alike — deserve counsel who knows both the law and the academy. If your tenure case, discipline proceeding, or campus investigation is putting your career at risk, the most valuable time to get advice is while the internal process is still under way.
Talk to a Higher Education Employment Attorney
Your academic career deserves experienced legal protection. Whether you’re facing a tenure dispute, faculty discipline, discrimination, or a Title IX investigation, Wilkenfeld Law Office can help you understand your rights and your options. Contact us to discuss your situation.
Or call 301.245.3035 · Intake@WilkenfeldLO.com
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Reviewed by Ari Wilkenfeld, Esq. (DC Bar No. 461063; MD Bar No. 9806240300). Ari has over 27 years of experience litigating in federal and state courts, and before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and various arbitration panels. Ari has been recognized by Esquire Magazine as “a famously determined Civil Rights lawyer” and by the New York Post as “a high powered DC Lawyer.” Last updated: November 1, 2026.