If you are a student or faculty member in the United States and the school has notified you that you have been accused of some kind of gender or sexual based misconduct (sexual harassment, stalking, sexual assault, dating violence, and so forth), you will need help defending yourself. The punishment for being found “guilty” of any of these accusations can be severe. Suspension, expulsion, denial of employment or professional licensing, loss of scholarships (which can effectively be an expulsion in certain situations), loss of immigration status and deportation, and referral for criminal prosecution are all possibilities. Other things that cannot be restored with the stroke of a pen—your reputation, peace of mind, and relationships—are also at risk.

In addition to the potential for severe punishment, you will also need help because the process is complicated and, too often, unfair. You will soon learn that there are many “unknowns” regarding what the school can do and what you probably should do. Hopefully, the school will tell you at the beginning of the investigation that you are entitled to assistance from an advisor of your choice who “may be, but is not required to be, an attorney.” That right is provided by federal regulation, specifically 34 CFR 106.45(b)(5)(iv).

Technically, anyone could be your advisor. It could be a family member you believe to be especially reasonable, a trusted local attorney who specializes in a lot of things (but maybe not Title IX), a professor who has mentored you, a counselor, a trusted leader in your religious community, and so forth.

Whoever you choose for your advisor, there are the three things you should look for if you want the best chance at a positive outcome.

By professionally, I mean several things. For example, their advisees are clients. This is important because it ensures that advisors have skin in the game. They stand to lose personally if they serve you poorly because you can always walk away and take your business elsewhere. There is a quality control enforcement mechanism naturally built into the relationship. By professional, I also mean that they have the qualities of a professional: they have excellent communication skills, can objectively evaluate a situation, are intelligent, and so forth.

By specializing in Title IX, I mean that Title IX isn’t a side project for them while their main professional focus is elsewhere. They eat, sleep, and breathe Title IX, and they study it as an area of constant professional development. A good way to get an early sense of whether they specialize in Title IX is to visit their professional website and see if it says “Title IX” or something similar (like “student conduct matters”). If it says everything but those things, keep looking.

You may be considering a criminal defense attorney who does not specialize in Title IX, tempted by the notion that a school proceeding—being less formal and serious than a criminal proceeding—will be easily covered by such an attorney. That attorney may even tell you as much. The problem is that there are many rights and options built into a criminal (and even in a civil court) proceeding that do not exist in a school Title IX proceeding. Additionally, some of the advice that works well for a civil or criminal court proceeding has the opposite effect in a Title IX proceeding.

Title IX proceedings are their own world. You need someone who specializes in them.

This is closely related to #1. “Experienced” means they did not just start recently. Ideally, they will have years of experience. Of course, advisors who are just starting out may feel this advice is unfair (everyone has to start somewhere), but at the end of the day it is your future on the line.

Title IX proceedings are complicated. They answer to many authorities: federal regulations, federal laws, state laws, state and federal court decisions, school policies, and—last but definitely not least—the unspoken interests and preferences of school administrators. There are at least twenty different categories of tasks that a Title IX advisor can perform, and perhaps more depending on how you define them. Learning how to navigate all of them and effectively assert your client’s rights at a moment’s notice takes time. So, go with someone who has experience.

There are several ways you can get a sense of this. First of all, they don’t have conflicts of interest such as being directly employed by the university. Close ties with the university might discourage them from raising important concerns or pushing back as hard as they need to.

Another way to gauge their trust is to simply evaluate how they communicate. The age-old advice of “ask direct questions, expect direct answers” helps here. If they are evasive or appear uncomfortable with your questions, be skeptical. Sometimes, their answer to a question will be “it depends,” and that’s fine; they aren’t going to do a lot of advising before you actually hire them. Each case has its own set of facts and circumstances, only a few of which are apparent during an initial consultation. That said, an effective advisor can still give you some sense of how or why it depends.

If you are considering an attorney, ask them who would do most of the work in your case and listen carefully to their response. Would it be that attorney, or would it be someone the attorney oversees (who may not be an attorney or may not even specialize in Title IX) that assists you in, say, preparing a response to an investigation report or cross-examining the other party and their witnesses? If you get the sense that the attorney would be farming your defense out to non-attorney low-level firm administrators who do not specialize in Title IX matters while just occasionally reviewing their work, keep looking.

Lastly, don’t ignore your gut. If something seems wrong, it probably is, even if you can’t articulate exactly what it is.

You may be wondering if your advisor needs to be local. In nearly all cases (especially in higher ed), participation in Title IX proceedings can be done remotely. Interviews and hearings are routinely conducted via Zoom, Webex, and similar videoconferencing software. Other communication with administrators is conducted by email. It is usually only in lower education, and usually due to the involvement of minors, that schools require certain meetings to be conducted onsite.

If you are considering an advisor who is more remote and your case involves lower education, be sure to factor the advisor’s potential travel expenses into your budget. If you are a parent whose child is involved in a lower ed Title IX matter and you are considering a more remote advisor that you particularly like, there’s a good chance you can ask the Title IX Coordinator if all meetings related to the Title IX matter can be done remotely.

An advisor is not a guarantee of success, and you will need to “help them help you.” But an experienced Title IX advisor who is fully on your side is irreplaceable and can radically improve your defense.

Of course, in nearly all cases, a professional and independent Title IX advisor is going to require a fee. Virtually all professional advisors are expensive in the sense that it’s a cost you didn’t anticipate, but there are some advisory services out there that are more affordable. We are one of them, and you can learn more about our advisory service here.

There is the possibility that you could find an advisor for free somewhere, but those tend to come with significant drawbacks: lack of specialization, less experience, conflicts of interest, and so forth. Free is always a great benefit, but it doesn’t compare well with the risk of losing scholarships, years of lost potential earnings due to suspensions and career setbacks, damaged reputations and relationships, and so forth. As a notorious Star Trek character once said, free advice is seldom cheap.

If you have been accused, consider our Title IX advisory service, and make sure to read our guide on what to do if you are wrongly accused of a Title IX violation. I hope you don’t need us, but if you do, consider speaking with us.