Title IX Lawyer: What One Does and When to Hire One

What a Title IX lawyer does, in the words of the rule

The regulation never uses the phrase Title IX lawyer. It uses advisor. Section 106.45(b)(5)(iv) requires a school to give both parties the same opportunity to be accompanied to any related meeting or proceeding by the advisor of their choice, who may be, but is not required to be, an attorney. The school may limit how far the advisor participates, as long as the limit applies equally to both parties. So in an interview the lawyer may be a silent observer; at a college hearing the lawyer is the only person who can question the other side.

Between those two moments the lawyer's work is mostly written. The rule gives the parties at least 10 days to respond in writing to the evidence, and the investigator must consider that response before finishing the report. The report itself goes to each party and their advisor at least 10 days before a hearing. After a determination, each party has an appeal with a reasonable, equal opportunity to submit a written statement. A lawyer who knows the rule uses each of those openings.

The rule also puts limits on the school that a lawyer can hold it to. The burden of proof and of gathering evidence rests on the school, not on the parties. The school cannot use a party's medical, psychological or counseling records without that party's voluntary, written consent. It cannot restrict either party from discussing the allegations or gathering evidence. And it must apply a presumption that the respondent is not responsible until the process ends.

Which Title IX rules apply in November 2026

The statute is one sentence. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 says that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. The Department of Education writes the regulations that say how a school must handle a complaint, and those regulations changed, then changed back.

The Department's 2020 rule took effect on August 14, 2020. A 2024 rule took effect on August 1, 2024, in the states where courts had not already blocked it. On January 9, 2025, a federal district court vacated the 2024 rule, and the Department's own page says those 2024 regulations are not effective in any jurisdiction. On February 4, 2025, the Office for Civil Rights told schools in a Dear Colleague letter that it would enforce Title IX under the provisions of the 2020 Title IX Rule and that open investigations started under the 2024 rule should be immediately reevaluated.

The last step came this fall. On September 29, 2026 the Department published a final rule, Recodification of Title IX Rules, effective the same day, which repeals the 2024 rule from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the regulatory text that existed before it. The Department made four minor changes to the restored text, and one of them matters to a hearing: it did not reinstate the sentence that barred a decision-maker from relying on any statement of a party or witness who did not submit to cross-examination. A court had already vacated that sentence in 2021. The current text of 34 CFR 106.45 on the eCFR carries the citation 91 FR 61319, Sept. 29, 2026.

The process a lawyer works inside, step by step

A Title IX case under the current rule begins with a formal complaint. The definition in section 106.30 is specific: a document filed by a complainant, or signed by the Title IX Coordinator, alleging sexual harassment against a respondent and requesting an investigation. The complainant must be participating in, or attempting to participate in, the school's program at the time of filing. Sexual harassment has three definitions in the same section: an employee conditioning a benefit on unwelcome sexual conduct; unwelcome conduct a reasonable person would find so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies equal access; or sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence or stalking as those terms are defined in federal law.

Some complaints must be dismissed before they go anywhere. If the conduct alleged would not be sexual harassment under that definition even if proved, did not occur in the school's education program or activity, or did not occur against a person in the United States, the school must dismiss it for Title IX purposes. The same paragraph says that dismissal does not preclude action under another provision of the school's code of conduct. That line is why a university-discipline case can continue after a Title IX case ends, and why a lawyer looks at both.

Supportive measures run alongside the case. The rule defines them as non-disciplinary, non-punitive individualized services offered without fee or charge to the complainant or the respondent, and it lists examples: counseling, deadline extensions, schedule changes, campus escorts, mutual restrictions on contact between the parties, housing changes and leaves of absence. A mutual no-contact restriction is common, and a respondent who breaks one creates a second problem. The school must keep supportive measures confidential where it can.

Informal resolution is available only after a formal complaint is filed, only with both parties' voluntary, written consent, and never for an allegation that an employee sexually harassed a student. Either party may withdraw from it before a resolution is reached and return to the formal process. The school may not make waiving the formal process a condition of enrollment or employment.

• Standard of evidence: the policy must state whether it is preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence, and use the same standard for students and employees, including faculty.
• Time frames: the rule requires reasonably prompt time frames, and allows temporary delay for good cause with written notice; good cause can include the absence of a party, advisor or witness, concurrent law enforcement activity, or the need for language assistance or disability accommodation.
• Separate rooms: at either party's request, the live hearing must be held with the parties in separate rooms, with technology that lets everyone see and hear the person answering.
• Recording: the school must make an audio or audiovisual recording, or a transcript, of any live hearing and make it available to the parties.
• Records: the school must keep each investigation, determination, appeal and informal resolution for seven years, and must publish its training materials for coordinators, investigators and decision-makers on its website.

Who hires a Title IX lawyer, and when it is also a criminal matter

Both sides of a complaint have the same advisor right. A respondent, the person reported to have done the conduct, usually hires one because the sanctions range up to expulsion and the written determination follows the record. A complainant, the person alleged to be the victim, may hire one to prepare the written responses, to conduct cross-examination at the hearing, and to use the same appeal grounds. Employees, including faculty, are covered by the same grievance process and the same standard of evidence as students.

The rules are not the same at every level. For postsecondary institutions, the grievance process must provide for a live hearing. For elementary and secondary schools, the process may, but need not, include a hearing; instead, after the investigative report goes out, each party may submit written, relevant questions for any party or witness, receive the answers, and ask limited follow-up questions. A high-school case is therefore a paper case, and a lawyer's value is in the written questions and the response to the report.

A Title IX case and a criminal case can run at the same time about the same facts. The rule itself anticipates this: concurrent law enforcement activity is listed as good cause for a temporary delay of the school's process. The school decides under the preponderance or clear-and-convincing standard its policy names, and the rule requires a recording or transcript of any live hearing, so what is said there becomes part of a record. That is the reason people in this situation look for a lawyer who handles criminal litigation and the school proceeding together, not two lawyers who have never spoken.

Don Savatta's profile on this site is one example of that combination. It describes his practice as criminal litigation in federal and state courts and the defense of students and student-athletes in Title IX and university-discipline matters, and lists a New Jersey office at 334 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell and a New York office at 630 Third Avenue. Those details come from his profile; this site does not rate the work.

Read Don Savatta's practice areas, with his stated response practice and contact boundary.

Choosing and checking a Title IX lawyer

Start with the license, not the website. A New Jersey lawyer is listed in the Judiciary's free Statewide Attorney Index, reached from the Attorneys page on njcourts.gov, with a Bar Admission Date, a nine-digit NJ Attorney ID and a Good Standing Status. Active is the only status under which the lawyer may practice. A New York lawyer is listed in the New York State Unified Court System's Attorney Directory, a free public service that asks for at least the first character of the first or middle name and the first character of the last name. If the lawyer says the office is in both states, both records should show it.

Then ask the questions that the rule makes concrete. Who will attend the interviews, and who will conduct cross-examination at the hearing: the lawyer you are talking to, or someone else at the firm? Has the lawyer handled a proceeding under this school's policy, and does the lawyer have a copy of it? How will the 10-day evidence response and the response to the investigative report be prepared, and what will you be asked to gather? What happens if the school's process and a criminal matter overlap? And how is the engagement billed, in writing, before any records change hands?

Two cautions. First, the school must provide an advisor free of charge for the hearing if you have none, but it is an advisor of the school's choice, who may or may not be a lawyer, and the rule assigns that person one job: to conduct cross-examination on your behalf. Second, lawyer directories and search ads are advertising. A listing is not a license check, and this site does not rank lawyers, endorse anyone, or award a status.

Use the NJ attorney lookup guide to read the Good Standing Status, the Ineligible List and the Disciplinary Review Board record before you rely on anyone. Then read

the questions to ask before hiring a professional and

how review works on this site.

Questions to settle before you rely on a lawyer's record.