University of Colorado Denver Student Defense Lawyer
CU Denver students tend to contact me after an academic integrity referral from an instructor, after a charge under the Student Code of Conduct, or after a program has put continued enrollment in question. Many are working adults or transfer students with a degree already half paid for, which changes what a suspension actually costs and why the response deserves real attention.
Overview
CU Denver is public, 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. Because this is one campus of the University of Colorado, a case also sits under system-wide regental policies alongside the campus procedures. Read both. Between the campus code, the campus academic integrity policy, and regental policy, three documents can bear on one case, and the appeal is often won by showing which one the decision-maker did not follow — the ordinary shape of due process at a public institution.
Where CU Denver cases come from
The Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards administers the Student Code of Conduct. Academic integrity is handled separately under a campus academic integrity policy, which provides for resolution through an academic integrity committee hearing where a student or faculty member requests it. CU Denver describes its education as conducted under an honor system and enumerates what violates academic standards: plagiarism, including improper use of material taken from the web; cheating; illegitimate possession or use of examinations; fabrication and falsification; multiple submissions; misuse of academic materials; and complicity.
Matters come from seven academic units — the Business School, the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Arts and Media, the College of Engineering, Design and Computing, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and Human Development, and the School of Public Affairs — each with its own progression and dismissal standards. One structural wrinkle: CU Denver shares the downtown Auraria Campus with Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver. Students take courses across those institutions and sometimes send an appeal to the wrong institution’s office while the clock runs.
Which process you are in matters
The track determines the deadline and the decision-maker. An academic integrity referral, a student conduct charge, and an academic dismissal or suspension decision are separate processes, and a Title IX or protected-class matter is separate again. Where a decision is disciplinary in substance but labeled academic, say so at the first opportunity, because the label is what determines how much deference the decision receives.
What to do first
Get the current Student Code of Conduct and academic integrity policy from CU Denver’s own site rather than from a summary, including this one, and identify any regental policy the letter cites. Read your syllabus alongside them. Calendar the deadline in writing, request the file the university is relying on, and preserve drafts, version history, and messages before they are gone. 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 CU 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 an academic integrity case at CU Denver?
It depends on the route. The campus policy contemplates resolution by the instructor and the academic unit, and it provides for an academic integrity committee hearing where one is requested. Knowing which route you are on before you respond is the difference between a written explanation and a hearing strategy.
I take classes at more than one Auraria institution. Whose rules apply?
The institution that offers the course and the institution in which you are enrolled can both matter, and their codes are not identical. Send correspondence to the right office and confirm receipt, because a filing sent to the wrong campus is not a timely filing.
Does the CU system matter here?
Yes. CU Denver is a campus of the University of Colorado, so regental policies apply alongside campus procedures. Where the two describe the same requirement differently, that discrepancy belongs in the written appeal.
Related Colorado pages: MSU Denver, CU Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Boulder, and University of Denver. 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.