Title IX & Campus Investigations
Title IX & Campus Investigations: When Your Job Is on the Line in a Campus Proceeding
A Title IX investigation is not just a student matter. Faculty, coaches, and staff are pulled into these proceedings constantly — as respondents accused of misconduct, as complainants reporting harassment, and as witnesses caught in between. The process is fast, specialized, and unforgiving, and its outcome can end an academic career regardless of what any court later says. Wilkenfeld Law Office advises university employees in Washington, D.C. and Maryland on both sides of Title IX and related campus investigations.
The Rules in Force Now
Title IX procedure has shifted repeatedly in recent years, and it matters which rules govern your case. The Department of Education’s 2024 regulations were vacated by a federal court effective nationwide in early 2025, restoring the 2020 regulations. Under the 2020 framework, postsecondary institutions must provide formal process in Title IX cases: written notice of the allegations, an investigation with the right to review the evidence, an adviser of the party’s choice — who may be an attorney — and a live hearing with cross-examination conducted through that adviser. Universities layer their own policies on top, and many run parallel “sexual misconduct” tracks for conduct falling outside Title IX’s definitions. Knowing which track you are on, and what process it owes you, is the first task in any campus case.
If You Are a Respondent
Being named in a Title IX complaint is one of the most dangerous moments in an academic career. Interim measures — suspension, removal from teaching, lab access restrictions, no-contact orders — can arrive before any finding. What you say in an early “informational” meeting can follow you through the hearing and into any later termination proceeding. You are entitled to an adviser of your choice at postsecondary institutions, and it should be someone who understands both the Title IX rules and the employment consequences. We help respondents:
- Respond to the notice of allegations and navigate interviews without creating a record that will be used against them
- Review and challenge the evidence file, and prepare for the live hearing and cross-examination
- Contest interim measures that are punitive in effect and protect tenure and contract rights running alongside the Title IX track
- Handle the employment endgame — because a Title IX finding is often followed by discipline or dismissal proceedings, where handbook and due-process rights kick in
At public universities, employees facing discipline from a campus finding also hold constitutional due-process rights; see our faculty discipline and academic freedom page.
If You Are a Complainant
Employees who experience sexual harassment on campus have more paths than the Title IX office — and the Title IX process alone is rarely enough to protect your job. Title VII, the D.C. Human Rights Act, and Maryland’s FEPA give university employees independent legal claims with their own remedies, including damages the campus process cannot award. Those claims carry deadlines — generally 300 days for an EEOC charge — that keep running while the university investigates, so filing internally does not preserve your legal rights. We help complainants pursue the campus process and the legal one in parallel. Our sexual harassment pages cover those claims in depth.
Retaliation Around Campus Investigations
Retaliation is unlawful from every direction here. Title IX itself prohibits retaliation against anyone who files a complaint or participates in an investigation — complainants, respondents’ witnesses, everyone. Title VII and local law separately protect employees who report harassment. If your teaching assignments, funding, or standing changed after you filed, testified, or were accused, that pattern is itself a claim; see our workplace retaliation page.
Other Campus Investigations
The same dynamics run through the academy’s other investigative machinery: research-misconduct inquiries under federal ORI rules, financial and grant-compliance audits, “climate” reviews of departments, and athletics compliance investigations. Each has its own procedures, each generates a record that can surface in later discipline, and each is easier to survive with counsel involved early — ideally before your first interview.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I bring a lawyer to my Title IX proceeding?
Yes. Under the 2020 regulations that currently govern, parties at postsecondary institutions are entitled to an adviser of their choice — who may be an attorney — and cross-examination at the live hearing is conducted through that adviser. Having counsel in the room is not just permitted; the structure of the hearing assumes it.
Which Title IX rules apply to my case — 2020 or 2024?
The 2024 regulations were vacated nationwide in early 2025, so the 2020 regulations govern current cases: written notice, access to the evidence, a live hearing with cross-examination. But your university’s own policies layer on top, and some conduct is routed to parallel misconduct tracks with different procedures — identifying your track is step one.
I reported harassment to the Title IX office. Doesn’t that protect my legal claims?
No — and this trap catches university employees constantly. The campus process and your legal claims run on separate clocks. An EEOC charge is generally due within 300 days, and the deadline does not pause while the Title IX office investigates. Pursue both in parallel, because the campus process cannot award the remedies a legal claim can.
Bottom Line
Campus investigations decide careers long before any court gets involved, and the record you make in the first weeks — the first interview, the first written response — is the record everything else is built on. Whether you have been accused, you are the one reporting misconduct, or an inquiry is circling your department, the single highest-value move is getting counsel in early.
Talk to a Title IX & Campus Investigations Attorney
If you are facing a Title IX complaint, campus investigation, or retaliation related to a university proceeding, Wilkenfeld Law Office can help you understand your rights and protect your academic career. Contact us for a free consultation.
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.