UIC School of Law: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at UIC Law?

The University of Illinois Chicago School of Law calls itself “Chicago’s Only Public Law School.” It is the former John Marshall Law School, an independent school established in 1899 that merged with UIC in 2019 and took its current name on July 1, 2021. It is accredited by the American Bar Association, sits inside a university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and offers full-time day and part-time evening J.D. tracks in Chicago, in Cook County. Its most consequential rule is arithmetic. In large first-year required courses the grading curve requires that no fewer than 10% of the class receive a D or F — and a cumulative GPA below 1.75 after the first semester, or after 14 credit hours if that comes later, means immediate dismissal.

UIC Law is part of a public university, so two bodies of law apply on top of its own handbook. The first is constitutional due process: the university is a state actor, and Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), requires notice of the charge and a meaningful chance to respond. The second is the deference courts give genuine academic judgment — 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), under which an academic decision stands unless it is such a substantial departure from accepted academic norms that no professional judgment was actually exercised.

The Seventh Circuit adds a hurdle that decides many of these cases at the pleading stage. There is no free-standing property interest in a public university education; a student has to point to a specific promise, such as a promise not to be dismissed without good cause, and Charleston v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 741 F.3d 769 (7th Cir. 2013), dismissed a medical student’s due process claims for not doing so, adding that there is no fundamental right to a graduate education. The other route is liberty: in Doe v. Purdue University, 928 F.3d 652 (7th Cir. 2019), a formal finding of sexual violence that changed the student’s status, and that the university itself disclosed to the Navy, was enough — and the court held that a process in which panel members had not read the investigative report, the evidence was never shared with the student, and the decision-maker never heard from the accuser fell short of what even a high school must provide.

Illinois adds structural points that catch people out. Review of the university’s decision does not run through the Administrative Review Law, because the enabling acts do not adopt it; the vehicle is a common-law writ of certiorari in the circuit court — Dusthimer v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 368 Ill. App. 3d 159 (2006) — on which the court asks whether the body proceeded legally and whether the evidence supports what it did. Money damages go somewhere else again: the state universities are arms of the State, and the Court of Claims Act, 705 ILCS 505/8, sends contract claims against the State and tort claims against the named university boards — the University of Illinois’s, which governs UIC Law, among them — to the Illinois Court of Claims. In federal court the university likewise has Eleventh Amendment immunity (Moore v. Watson, 838 F. Supp. 2d 735 (N.D. Ill. 2012), applied that to Chicago State), so the federal route is prospective relief against university officials in their official capacities. The state-court counterpart is Leetaru v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 2015 IL 117485: a student may seek an injunction in circuit court where university officials act in violation of law or in excess of their authority — but the bar is a fundamental disregard of core rules, not a technical slip, and it is a remedy for a proceeding that is still running.

A federal claim arising at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Cook County sits in its Eastern Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Chicago and Wheaton. I am a member of the general bar of that court, admitted on my Florida license under its Local Rule 83.10, which opens the general bar to an attorney in good standing before the highest court of any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504, ADA or due process complaint for a UIC Law student is one I file and litigate under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion. The Northern District abrogated its local-counsel designation rule in July 2023, so a member of its bar with no office in the district no longer has to designate local counsel. One limit, stated plainly: the court keeps a separate trial bar, and under Local Rule 83.12 a general-bar member who is not on it — that is me — appears alone in everything except testimonial proceedings, meaning evidentiary hearings and trial, where a trial-bar member must sit as advisor unless the judge grants the rule’s narrow waiver.

The arithmetic of a first-year dismissal

The Law School’s Grading and Class Ranks policy (last amended January 23, 2026) puts Civil Procedure I, Constitutional Law I, Contracts I and II, Criminal Law, Property and Torts on “Curve I” whenever enrollment exceeds 30: 20–30% of the class in the A range, 35–45% in the B range, 15–25% in the C range, and 10–20% receiving a D or F, with a class average between 2.40 and 2.80. A D or F in those courses is not a sign that something unusual happened; the policy requires a minimum number of them. GPAs “are not rounded up,” and missing a scheduled final examination earns a WF, which counts as 0.00. The faculty must offer reasonable post-examination review, and you should use it: an exam review is where a grading or recording error surfaces.

The JD Probation and Academic Dismissal Policy (amended November 21, 2025) then applies three rules:

• Below 1.75 at the end of the first semester, or on completing or attempting 14 credit hours if later: immediate dismissal. The rule does not apply to transfer students.
• Below 2.25 at the end of any fall or spring semester: academic probation. Students who matriculated in fall 2024 or later get two consecutive terms of enrollment to climb back to 2.25; summer counts only if you are eligible to enroll in at least five credits, which means you have completed the 30 core required credits.
• Probation once. A second drop below 2.25 after any later fall or spring semester means dismissal.

Good standing at 2.25 is a condition of registration, class attendance and participation in Law School activities. A student whose cumulative GPA falls below 2.750 during the 2L1 class level must also complete a prescribed list of courses, none of them online, and follow an Individualized Academic Achievement Plan, which can limit co-curricular activities and outside employment. J.D. study must be completed within 84 months. See law school dismissal and academic standing.

Readmission is a character-and-fitness filing

A student dismissed for academic reasons may petition the faculty Academic Affairs Committee, and the petition must make an affirmative showing that prior performance “does not indicate a lack of capacity to complete the program of legal education and be admitted to the bar.” You must also update the character-and-fitness answers on your admission application and complete a Re-Enrollment Form. The committee looks hardest at how close your GPA is to 1.75 or 2.25, improvement since the first semester, whether you have done “B–” work in at least a few courses, academic-support participation since probation, and whether specific circumstances that contributed “have clearly changed.”

• As a new student: petition no earlier than one semester after dismissal; readmission takes effect no earlier than a year after it, and you start over.
• As a continuing student (31 or more graded credit hours): sit out a semester while the petition is considered, repeat required courses graded C or lower, and reach 2.25 by the end of the semester you return, with no further probation available.

The committee’s decision is final and “not appealable,” readmission decisions are expressly outside the grievance procedures, a rejected petition cannot be refiled, and no student is readmitted a second time. After a rejection the only door is the normal admissions process, no sooner than two years after the semester of dismissal and only with the affirmative vote of the faculty Admissions Committee. See readmission after dismissal.

Probation and dismissal can be grieved, on a calendar-day clock

The Law School’s complaint procedures (January 2024) classify probation and dismissal as Level 1 grievances under UIC’s campus Student Academic Grievance Policy — the level that comes with a hearing — and grade disputes as Level 2. Contact the Academic Grievance Coordinator, the Assistant Dean for Student Life & Leadership, before drafting. You must first make a good-faith attempt to resolve the matter with the person who decided (not required where discrimination or sexual misconduct is alleged), and the formal grievance must be filed “within 40 calendar days” of notice of the decision. Here the documents disagree: the campus procedures the Law School is implementing count every period in “working or business days.” Use the Law School’s shorter, calendar-day count. Your deadlines can be extended “only in extraordinary circumstances,” with the approval of the Chancellor, the Dean or the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.

At a Level 1 hearing the panel is three faculty with whom you have not had substantial academic interactions. You may present witnesses and propose questions for the panel to ask; your advisor may not address the panel or witnesses; an attorney requires five business days’ written notice, and University Counsel can be invited to advise the panel. The Grievance Officer is not bound by the panel and decides; the only further step is an appeal to the Chancellor within five business days, limited to discrimination, sexual misconduct or a significant procedural error.

The Honor and Professionalism Code

The Code (revised April 28, 2023) governs from the day you apply for admission until graduation, off campus too where the Law School’s reputation or your fitness to practice is implicated, and a pending matter can hold your degree. Its definitions are wide. In the cheating and collaboration rules, “another person” includes any AI chatbot; plagiarism “does not need to be intentional”; and the Honor Council may find a violation based on “intentional, knowing, reckless, or negligent” conduct if it is “more likely than not” that you violated the Code.

• Investigation. An Honor Code Investigator, usually a full-time faculty member, decides whether probable cause exists. You have a duty to cooperate and respond promptly, and failing to do so can itself violate the Code.
• Administrative disposition. For a less serious matter with undisputed key facts and a candid student, the Investigator may offer a disposition instead of a hearing. Accepting it is an admission and waives your right to grieve; you have 10 business days to accept or reject in writing, and it is available only once.
• Honor Council hearing. Three faculty and two students; usually held within 60 days of referral (the Code does not say whether calendar or business days). Request the file no later than two weeks after you are told the hearing date. Complainants’ and corroborating witnesses’ identities stay confidential, and the hearing is recorded only if you ask at least 24 hours ahead.
• Counsel. “A student cannot be represented by an attorney or other person at the Honor Council hearing.” You may bring counsel or a support person, but neither may participate; you confer outside the room, and the Law School may then consult University Counsel.

Findings and remedial measures can be grieved under the campus procedures, and the measures are stayed while the grievance runs unless the Council or the Dean says otherwise. And every written notice — from the one opening an investigation onward — tells you to contact the Associate Dean for Professionalism and Career Strategy “about amending your bar admission application,” while the Code warns that allegations or findings “may be reported” to any board of bar examiners to which you apply. See honor code defense.

AI: a footnote does not cure it

Unless a professor’s syllabus sets a different rule, the Law School’s default AI policy (the version posted in September 2026) makes generative AI “absolutely prohibited in any secured exam,” including uploading an exam fact pattern to spot issues even if no AI text is pasted in. For anything submitted for credit, AI may not substantially perform work you are expected to do, such as drafting and outlining, and composing all or part of a paper with AI is a violation “even if the use of generative AI is fully documented in properly placed footnotes.” At UIC Law, citing the tool is not a defense. See AI-related accusations.

The bar file: amendments and the Dean’s Certificate

Two administrative policies decide how a school matter travels with you. Under the Amendments to Admission Application policy (revised November 21, 2023), a student must send a written, signed statement to the Associate Dean for Professionalism & Career Strategy within 30 days of learning that an amendment is needed — the policy does not say calendar or business days — and the statement goes into your permanent file and to the board of bar examiners when you apply. Unresolved matters must be updated at least once a semester, and the possible responses run from a letter allowing the amendment to revocation of admission, diploma holds and negative dean’s certification notations. Under the Dean’s Certificates policy, the Dean personally decides whether to issue the certificate bar examiners request for anyone whose record shows a conduct-code violation, “an open investigation” under the Honor Code or the Student Disciplinary Policy, or an application amendment within 12 months of graduation — and any hold on your account blocks issuance. See professionalism and fitness concerns.

Conduct and sexual misconduct run through UIC

Two policies govern law students’ behavior: the Honor Code and UIC’s Student Disciplinary Policy. The Law School may evaluate conduct under its own Code without a campus referral, recommend campus charges, or both. Campus cases follow the rules set out on the University of Illinois Chicago page: five business days to appeal, a support person who may not participate, and five business days’ notice before bringing an attorney. If a campus referral ends without a hearing, the Dean may still call a professionalism conference, and you must agree to meet within 10 business days of the notice or risk a fresh referral.

Sexual misconduct goes to UIC’s Office for Access and Equity under the Comprehensive Policy and Procedures for Sexual Misconduct Grievance Process, effective January 1, 2026, with preponderance of the evidence as the standard and student cases heard through the Dean of Students. The Comprehensive Policy’s hearing procedures, written under its employee-respondent heading, call for live cross-examination by each party’s advisor, while the Student Disciplinary Policy has the Hearing Chair put the parties’ questions. For sexual misconduct, the federal rule is the 2020 Title IX regulation: the 2024 rule was vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, in Tennessee v. Cardona, and on September 29, 2026 the Department of Education formally repealed it and restored the pre-2024 text (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308). The 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination, so settle in writing, before the hearing, which questioning rule applies to you.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: reading the Law School’s policy against what it actually did and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes rather than the ones that feel most unfair; preserving the federal issues — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, FERPA — so they are in the record if the case ever leaves campus; and identifying comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker. The Honor Council’s annual redacted summary of cases and sanctions is a starting point.

At UIC Law three moves stand out. The first is the administrative-disposition decision: accepting is an admission and gives up the grievance, while refusing puts you before a Council that can find a violation on negligence alone, and you have 10 business days to choose — a decision to make with your bar application in front of you. The second is writing a readmission petition, or any amendment to your application, as a document bar examiners will read beside everything else in your file, because the policies send it there. The third is timing: count the 40-day grievance window in calendar days, and make the informal attempt early enough to leave room for the formal filing.

What a lawyer cannot do is speak for you at the Honor Council: the Code bars representation, and its proceedings are not governed by rules of evidence or procedure. There is no discovery, and the Law School decides its own case at first instance. That is why the written record built during the school process is everything: by the time a court looks at it, the record is closed.

The one Illinois statute that gives you procedure

Illinois has no general statute setting notice periods, hearing formats, standards of proof or appeal rights for college students. The Illinois School Code, 105 ILCS 5, has a detailed suspension and expulsion scheme, and it applies to elementary and secondary schools, not here. The exception is the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, 110 ILCS 155, and it is a real one. It reaches every higher education institution in the state — public universities, community colleges, and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions alike — and it requires timely written notice of the allegations to all parties, an investigation that is adequate, reliable and impartial, written notice of the outcome, and appeal rights. It requires the school to make confidential advisors available, trained to a statutory standard and kept separate from the people deciding the case. Both parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice, and that advisor may be an attorney — although the institution may limit how far an attorney-advisor participates in a hearing, which is why UIC’s own rule on that, set out above, still governs what your lawyer may do in the room. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, applied the same way to both sides.

What to do first

1. Find your clock. 10 business days to accept or reject an administrative disposition; two weeks from the hearing-date notice to request the Honor Council file; 40 calendar days to file a grievance; 30 days — the policy does not say calendar or business — to amend your admission application; 10 business days to agree to a professionalism conference.
2. Do the GPA arithmetic yourself — 1.75, 2.25, and 2.750 at 2L1 — remembering that nothing is rounded up.
3. Ask, in writing, for the file and an exam review. Request the Honor Council file, and use the post-examination review the faculty must provide.
4. Write every statement as if bar examiners will read it, because under the Law School’s policies amendments and readmission petitions go into your permanent file.
5. Raise disability and accommodation issues now, before a decision, not on appeal. The Illinois overview covers other schools.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them, the Northern and the Southern. A federal claim arising at a school in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana or the Quad Cities falls in the Central District; I am not a member of that bar, and those matters I handle with local counsel in that district or by pro hac vice admission. Appeals from the Northern District go to the Seventh Circuit, which keeps its own bar; my appellate admission is in the Eleventh. I say so before a retainer rather than after.

Where I am licensed. I am licensed to practice law in Florida. I am 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 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. I am not licensed in Illinois and do not advise on Illinois state law or appear in Illinois state court.

Other schools in the Northern District of Illinois

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other schools in the Northern District of Illinois:

• University of Saint Mary of the Lake (Mundelein Seminary)
• University of St. Francis
• VanderCook College of Music
• Wheaton College
• Worsham College of Mortuary Science
• Adler University

Common questions about UIC Law student cases

What GPA gets you dismissed from UIC Law?

A cumulative GPA below 1.75 at the end of the first semester, or on completing or attempting 14 credit hours if later, means immediate dismissal. Below 2.25 at the end of any fall or spring semester puts you on probation, which you get only once; falling below 2.25 again after a later semester means dismissal. GPAs are not rounded up, and the first-year curve requires D and F grades for at least 10% of each large section.

Can I bring a lawyer to a UIC Law Honor Council hearing?

You may bring one, but not be represented by one. The Code says a student “cannot be represented by an attorney or other person” at the hearing; counsel or a support person may attend but may not participate, and you confer outside the room. If you bring an attorney, the Law School may consult University Counsel. The lawyer’s work is in the preparation and the writing.

How long do I have to grieve a dismissal at UIC Law?

The Law School’s complaint procedures say 40 calendar days from notice of the decision, after a good-faith attempt to resolve it informally, and dismissal is a Level 1 grievance with a three-faculty hearing. The campus procedures count days as business days, so the Law School’s calendar count is the safer one. Talk to the Academic Grievance Coordinator before drafting.

Will an Honor Code investigation affect my bar application?

The Law School’s own notices raise it from the start: every written notice, including the one opening an investigation, tells you to contact the Associate Dean for Professionalism and Career Strategy about amending your bar admission application. The Code says allegations or findings may be reported to bar examiners, and the Dean personally reviews whether to issue a Dean’s Certificate while an investigation is open.

Can I appeal if UIC Law denies my readmission petition?

No. The Academic Affairs Committee’s decision on readmission is final and not appealable, readmission decisions are excluded from the grievance procedures, and a rejected petition cannot be filed again. The remaining route is the normal admissions process, no sooner than two years after the semester of dismissal and only with the faculty Admissions Committee’s affirmative vote. Build the first petition as the only one.

What standard of proof does the UIC Law Honor Council use?

The Council decides whether it is “more likely than not” that you violated the Honor and Professionalism Code, and it may find a violation based on intentional, knowing, reckless or negligent conduct. Plagiarism under the Code does not need to be intentional. A majority of the members present must vote both to find a violation and to recommend remedial measures to the Dean.