District of Nebraska Bar Admission: One Court, Every Nebraska Campus

Nebraska is one federal district. Not two, not three — one. Every college and university in the state, from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to Chadron State College out in the panhandle, sits in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. I am admitted to the bar of that court. This page explains what that admission requires, why the single-district structure matters more than it sounds like it should, and what it changes for a Nebraska student whose case is headed for federal court.

The short version

A federal claim arising at a Nebraska campus — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, or constitutional due process against a public institution — is filed in the District of Nebraska. I am a member of that court’s bar, so the complaint is filed under my own name. There is no pro hac vice motion to write, no admission fee to clear, and no search for a sponsoring attorney before the case can start. When the relief you need is a temporary restraining order because a hearing is in nine days, that difference is the entire case.

Nebraska is one federal district

Most states with a serious higher-education footprint are carved into several federal districts, and the line runs straight through the state’s campuses. Wisconsin is the clearest example: UW–Madison sits in the Western District and Marquette in the Eastern District, an hour and a half apart and in different courts. A lawyer admitted to one is not admitted to the other.

Nebraska has no such line. The District of Nebraska covers all ninety-three counties, which means it covers:

• University of Nebraska–Lincoln, including the College of Law
• University of Nebraska Omaha
• University of Nebraska Medical Center
• University of Nebraska at Kearney
• Creighton University, including its schools of law, medicine, dentistry and pharmacy
• Nebraska Wesleyan University
• Wayne State College and Chadron State College

One court, one bar, one set of local rules for every campus in the state. For a student, the practical consequence is that the venue question — genuinely complicated in Wisconsin, Texas, New York or California — is answered before it is asked. Which federal court hears a case against your school is set out campus by campus on where do you sue a university.

What admission to the District of Nebraska requires

Under the court’s general rules, an attorney admitted and licensed to practice before the highest court of any state may apply for admission to its bar. Nebraska state bar membership is not a prerequisite. That is the provision under which I was admitted on my Florida license in August 2026, and it is the same structure that admitted me to the District of Colorado and the Western District of Wisconsin.

Two points of accuracy matter here, because the opposite is often assumed:

The District of Nebraska does grant pro hac vice admission. Unlike the District of Colorado, which grants none at all, Nebraska permits an attorney licensed by any state’s highest court to apply in writing to appear in a particular case. An out-of-state lawyer is not locked out of this court. What full bar membership buys is not access — it is speed, and the removal of a motion a judge has discretion to deny.

A judge may still require resident co-counsel. The court’s rules permit a judge to direct that a nonresident attorney associate with counsel who is both a resident of the district and a member of its bar. That is a case-management decision made after a case is filed, not a condition of filing, and I will tell you plainly if it comes up in yours.

What this changes for a Nebraska student

Most campus disciplinary matters never reach a courtroom, and they should not. The work that decides them happens inside the school’s own process — the policies, the comparators, the procedural failures, the accommodations requested and ignored. Federal court is the leverage behind that work, and the credibility of the leverage depends on whether the lawyer holding it can actually get to the courthouse.

Admission to this court means three concrete things:

• Emergency relief runs on a real timeline. A TRO or preliminary injunction motion — to stop a suspension taking effect, to keep a dismissal off a transcript before a residency deadline, to preserve a clinical placement — is filed the day it is ready, not the day a pro hac vice motion is granted.
• Pre-suit work stands on firmer ground. Nebraska’s professional conduct rules permit an out-of-state lawyer to provide services reasonably related to a pending or potential proceeding before a tribunal where the lawyer is authorized to appear. Being admitted removes the argument about whether I reasonably expect to be authorized.
• The school’s counsel knows the difference. A demand letter from a lawyer who can file in the court named in it reads differently than one from a lawyer who would first have to go find someone.

Federal co-counsel in the District of Nebraska

I am available as federal co-counsel to lawyers with a student or education matter in this district. The usual arrangement is that the referring lawyer keeps the client relationship and the state-law questions while I handle the federal education-law side — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, First Amendment and due process claims against public institutions — either as co-counsel of record or behind the scenes. The same arrangement is available in the District of Colorado and the Western District of Wisconsin. Details are on the local counsel and co-counsel page, and what I am actively litigating against schools is on the litigation page.

Common questions

Do I need to be a member of the Nebraska state bar to join the District of Nebraska bar?

No. The court’s rules permit an attorney admitted and licensed before the highest court of any state to apply. I was admitted on my Florida license.

Does the District of Nebraska allow pro hac vice admission?

Yes. An attorney licensed by any state’s highest court may apply in writing to practice in the court for a particular case, with a fee. That is a real difference from the District of Colorado, which grants no pro hac vice admission at all. Being a member of the bar simply removes the motion, the fee and the wait.

Will I need a Nebraska lawyer too?

For a federal case, usually not — though the rules permit a judge to require a nonresident member of the bar to associate resident counsel in a particular case. For anything in Nebraska state court, or any question of Nebraska state law, yes: I am licensed in Florida, not Nebraska, and those matters are handled with Nebraska counsel.

Which Nebraska campuses does this cover?

All of them. Nebraska is a single federal district, so every public and private institution in the state — the University of Nebraska system, the Medical Center, Creighton, Nebraska Wesleyan, Wayne State and Chadron State among them — falls in the same court. The full list, with each school’s own conduct policy, is on the Nebraska student defense page.

Does federal court admission mean you can advise on Nebraska law?

No, and the distinction is not a technicality. Admission to a federal district court authorizes practice before that court in matters governed by federal law. It is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits. I am licensed in Florida only and do not advise on Nebraska state law. How out-of-state representation is structured is explained on the nationwide practice page.

Attorney advertising. Zachary Gaynor is licensed to practice law in Florida and is admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the District of Colorado, the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the District of Nebraska, the District of New Mexico, and the Western District of Wisconsin, and of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits; he is not licensed in Nebraska and does not advise on Nebraska state law.