University of New Hampshire Student Defense Lawyer

UNH students usually call a lawyer after a conduct charge from Community Standards, an academic integrity referral, or an academic standing decision — and law students at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law in Concord call about matters that carry their own long tail: honor and conduct findings that must be disclosed to bar examiners. The University of New Hampshire is the state’s flagship public university in Durham, and its public status puts constitutional law into every disciplinary case.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at UNH?

Because UNH is public, the Fourteenth Amendment applies. Under Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), a disciplinary suspension requires notice and an opportunity to respond, and longer separations require more. The counterweight is Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), and Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985): genuinely academic decisions receive substantial deference, which is why the characterization of the decision — academic or disciplinary — is often the first and most consequential fight. The university is also bound by its own published procedures, and the gap between what was promised and what happened is where most defenses live. See due process at public institutions.

Where do UNH cases come from?

UNH publishes its Student Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities — the SRRR — annually each August through the Dean of Students office, and that document is the official compendium of the Student Code of Conduct and the university’s core student policies. Its reach is broad: it covers the Durham campus, UNH Manchester, the College of Professional Studies including its online programs, and the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law in Concord. Conduct matters run through Community Standards; integrity referrals increasingly arrive with similarity or AI-detection reports attached; and the law school adds the highest-stakes docket, because a finding there follows the graduate into character and fitness review in every state. Law school matters are covered on law school dismissal and academic standing; the integrity cases on academic misconduct and honor code.

Which process are you in, and why does that matter?

A conduct charge, an integrity referral, a Title IX complaint, and an academic standing decision follow different tracks at UNH, with different decision-makers, different appeal windows, and different advisor rules — and the SRRR is republished every year, so the edition in effect for your matter is a live question worth answering precisely. A decision that is disciplinary in substance but labeled academic deserves to be contested on the label itself, because the label determines both the process owed and the deference a court will later apply. Title IX matters run on their own federally structured track regardless.

What should you do first?

Pull the current SRRR from UNH’s own site — and, for law students, the Franklin Pierce policies that apply to your program — rather than relying on a summary, including this one. Confirm which academic year’s edition governs your matter.

Then calendar the deadline in writing, request your file, and preserve drafts, version history, messages, and notes before they disappear. Do not give a statement or sit for an interview until you understand what the university claims to have. Investigators can charge dishonesty during the process as its own violation, and that charge is often easier to prove than the original one.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
• Testing whether UNH followed its own published procedures
• Scrutinizing software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• Assisting with the written response and appeal, to the extent the policy permits
• Serving as your advisor where the process allows it
• Negotiating sanction terms, notations, and disclosure language

What a lawyer may actually do in your case depends on that school’s policy. Some tracks allow counsel to participate, some allow a non-participating advisor, and some allow no outside person at all. Reading the current policy is the first step, and it determines what form the assistance takes.

The federal money on the line at UNH

University of New Hampshire students and families took on $84.3 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $22.4 million borrowed not by students but by 903 of their parents through Parent PLUS.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). University-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

Common questions about UNH student cases

Does constitutional due process apply to my UNH case?

If the matter is disciplinary, yes — notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond are the constitutional floor at a public university, and UNH’s own published procedures typically promise more than that floor. If the matter is academic, the deference doctrine narrows the claim, and the productive arguments shift to whether the university followed its own rules.

I am at UNH Franklin Pierce. What should I be thinking about?

Bar admission. Character and fitness examiners will eventually read the record your law school creates now — the charge, the finding, and the exact resolution language — so every response should be written for that future reader as much as for the current decision-maker. An inaccurate statement in the campus process is itself a character and fitness problem.

Which version of the SRRR applies to me?

The SRRR is updated and republished annually, so the operative question is which edition was in effect for the conduct at issue and for the proceeding. The answer can matter — policies change year to year — and it is one of the first things I check in a UNH file.

Other New Hampshire schools: Dartmouth College, Keene State, and SNHU. The full list is on the New Hampshire student defense page.

This is general information about the matters I handle and the law that applies to them. It is not legal advice about your situation, and the law in this area can change. For advice on your matter, start with the Full Read + Game Plan — your entire file read, straight answers, and exactly what to do next, in what order.

This page is informational and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the institution named on it.

Attorney advertising. Zachary Gaynor is licensed in Florida, admitted to the federal district courts in Florida, Colorado, northern and southern Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, and western Wisconsin, and not licensed in New Hampshire; New Hampshire matters are handled through the framework described on the nationwide practice page — federal-law assessment, campus-process support where the school’s policy permits an advisor, and association with local counsel or pro hac vice admission where required.