Metropolitan State University of Denver Student Defense Lawyer
MSU Denver students often reach me at the worst possible moment: mid-degree, working, sometimes supporting a family, and holding a letter that threatens the whole plan. The cases are academic misconduct referrals, conduct charges, and program-level decisions about continued enrollment. What they share is a short window and a process that is written down and worth reading before you answer it.
Overview
MSU Denver is a public university, so 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. Academic decisions draw deference instead: under 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), a court will not disturb a faculty judgment unless it departs so substantially from accepted academic norms that professional judgment was not actually exercised. The practical upshot is familiar: the strongest argument is usually that the university did not follow its own published procedure, which is the ordinary shape of due process at a public institution rather than a constitutional showdown.
Where MSU Denver cases come from
The Dean of Students Office runs Student Conduct and administers the Student Code of Conduct. Academic misconduct is defined to include cheating, plagiarism, and submitting the same work for different classes, and MSU Denver amended its academic misconduct process beginning in fall 2025: cases are meant to resolve more quickly, faculty may participate in the investigation alongside the Dean of Students Office, and the two collaborate on outcomes. Faculty retain full decision-making authority over grade outcomes, while the Dean of Students Office assigns educational and status outcomes.
That split is the detail to plan around. Grade consequences and status consequences are decided by different people under the same process, so a resolution that addresses only the grade can leave a conduct record open, and a resolution that addresses only the record can leave the grade untouched. Separately, MSU Denver shares the downtown Auraria Campus with CU Denver and the Community College of Denver, and its health-related departments — consolidated in the Gina and Frank Day Health Institute, spanning nursing, nutrition, behavioral health, physical therapy, and social work — apply program-level progression standards on top of university policy.
Which process you are in matters
Know your track before responding. An academic misconduct referral, a student conduct charge, and an academic dismissal or suspension decision have different decision-makers and different appeal routes, and a Title IX or discrimination complaint is separate again. Health-program students should also read nursing school dismissal, because a clinical or fitness concern can end enrollment without any disciplinary finding at all.
What to do first
Pull the current Student Code of Conduct and the current academic misconduct procedure from MSU Denver rather than from a summary, including this one — the process changed in 2025, so an older PDF is worse than useless. Read your syllabus alongside it. Calendar the deadline in writing, request the file the university is relying on, and preserve drafts, version history, and messages before they age out. Do not sit for an interview until you understand what the evidence is.
What I can help with
- Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
- Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
- Testing whether MSU Denver 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 permit an advisor of choice who may be an attorney, some permit a non-participating advisor, and some permit no outside person at all. Reading the current policy is the first step, because it determines what form the assistance can take.
Common questions
Who decides my grade if I am found responsible?
The faculty member. Under the current process, faculty retain full decision-making authority over grade outcomes, and the Dean of Students Office assigns educational and status outcomes. Two conversations, two decision-makers — and a settlement with one of them does not bind the other.
Can I just explain what happened to my professor?
You can, but do it knowing that faculty may participate in the investigation alongside the Dean of Students Office and that what you say becomes part of the record. An explanation offered before you have read the policy and seen the evidence is usually the most damaging document in the file.
Will this follow me to a transfer or graduate application?
Possibly. Status outcomes and transcript notations are not the same thing, and disclosure questions on transfer, graduate, and licensure applications are broader than what a transcript shows. Sanction and notation language is often negotiable even where the finding is not.
Related Colorado pages: CU Denver, Regis University, University of Denver, and University of Northern Colorado. The full list is on the Colorado 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 admitted in Florida and its federal courts, not in Colorado; Colorado 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.