Catholic University of America Student Defense Lawyer
The Catholic University of America, founded in 1887 with the approval of Pope Leo XIII and located in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, is a private university whose student matters follow the same two or three letters as everywhere else: an academic integrity referral, a conduct or Title IX notice, or an academic-standing letter. Its Columbus School of Law — established in 1897, its name reflecting historic ties to the Knights of Columbus — adds the law-school variety, where the academic-standing letter that looks routine is actually the first draft of a bar application answer.
Overview
Catholic University is private, so the framework is contract rather than constitutional due process. The student conduct code, the academic regulations, and each school’s handbook are the promise, and the productive dispute is nearly always whether the university followed its own published procedures — the theory developed on my breach of contract against universities page. The university’s religious identity does not change the analysis that matters here: the policies it publishes bind it as written, and federal civil-rights law applies the same way it does across the District — Title IX grievance procedures, Section 504 and the ADA on accommodations, and FERPA on your education records.
Accreditation supplies the second lever: Middle States institutionally and the ABA for the Columbus School of Law, each requiring published, fair, and consistently applied academic and disciplinary procedures. A departure from written process is a contract problem and an accreditation-standard problem at once, and saying so precisely changes who reads the appeal.
Where Catholic University cases come from
The recurring undergraduate sources are academic integrity referrals — increasingly built on AI-detection and similarity software — together with residence-hall and student-organization conduct matters and Title IX proceedings. Graduate programs add academic-standing and progression disputes. At the Columbus School of Law, the volume concentrates in academic standing after the 1L year, exam-integrity allegations, and professionalism concerns, each carrying the bar-examiner shadow described on my law school dismissal and academic standing page.
Which process you are in matters
The university routes integrity, conduct, Title IX, and academic-standing matters through different offices under different procedures, and the label controls the deadline, the decision-maker, and the deference the outcome receives on review. Academic judgments are heavily deferred to; procedural departures are not. A decision that is disciplinary in substance but wears an academic label deserves to be contested on that ground alone. Name the track your letter puts you on, then read that track’s current procedure before responding.
What to do first
Pull the current code or handbook from the university’s own site, in the version in force for your cohort, and read the specific procedure named in your letter. Note the deadline in writing. Request your file. Preserve drafts, version history, messages, and any accommodation documentation — in a software-driven integrity case, the drafting history is often the defense.
Do not sit for an interview or submit a statement until you know what the university claims to have. These processes commonly treat inconsistency as a separate dishonesty charge, and that charge is often easier to prove than the original allegation.
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 the school 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 the university’s current policy for your track — participating advisor, silent advisor, or no outside person at all. Where counsel cannot appear, the work concentrates on the file and the written submission, which is usually where these cases are decided anyway.
Common questions
I am facing academic dismissal at the Columbus School of Law. Is it worth fighting?
Usually the honest answer is: it is worth doing properly. Petitions built on effort promises rarely move committees; petitions built on documented causes, unhandled accommodation issues, procedural departures, and a concrete plan sometimes do. And because bar applications will ask about everything, the petition should be drafted as if examiners will read it — they may.
Does Catholic University’s religious character limit my rights?
The rights that decide most student cases — the university’s own written procedures, FERPA access to your records, accommodation rights, Title IX procedures — operate at Catholic University the way they do at its neighbors. The governing documents are the place to look, and holding the university to its own text is the core of the work.
Can a lawyer attend my hearing?
Track-dependent. Some processes allow an advisor of choice, some a non-participating advisor, some none. The current policy answers it, and confirming that answer is one of the first steps in the record review described on the fees and scope of services page.
Other Washington, D.C. pages: American University, Georgetown University, and Gallaudet University. The full picture is on the Washington, D.C. 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 the District of Columbia; matters here 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.