University of Puget Sound Student Defense Lawyer
University of Puget Sound students usually reach me after a report under the Student Integrity Code, after an academic integrity referral, or after a graduate health program raises progression or professionalism. Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college in Tacoma founded in 1888, with graduate programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, education, and public health sitting alongside an undergraduate college. The Integrity Code covers both academic and behavioral matters, which sounds simpler than it is: the same document produces very different consequences depending on whether the student in front of it is a sophomore or a doctoral clinical student weeks from a fieldwork placement.
Overview
Puget Sound is private, so no constitutional due process claim runs against it. The relationship is contractual, and the contract is what the university published — the Student Integrity Code, the student handbook, the academic catalog, and the handbook of your particular graduate program. The question in a Puget Sound case is whether the university kept its own written promises about notice, hearing venue, standard, and appeal. That theory is developed on the breach of contract against universities page. Two federal decisions still frame how any reviewer treats academic judgment, even though both arose at public universities: 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). Federal statutes apply without regard to public or private status; Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, and FERPA all reach Puget Sound.
Where Puget Sound cases come from
On the undergraduate side the recurring sources are academic integrity referrals in writing-intensive courses, where similarity and AI-detection software supplies the initial evidence; residence-life and alcohol matters; and student-organization conduct. The Integrity Code is administered through an Integrity Board and administrative hearings, with the ASUPS Honor Court occupying a narrower role over student-government matters, so a student told to expect an “honor court” appearance should confirm which body is actually convening. The graduate programs generate a different category of case. The School of Occupational Therapy runs a cohort-based doctoral program with extended Level II fieldwork and a capstone, and the School of Physical Therapy is similarly clinical, so a problem that begins at a fieldwork site — supervision, scheduling, an unmet accommodation — arrives back on campus already written in professionalism language. See clinical, rotation, and externship failures and professionalism and fitness concerns.
Which process you are in matters
Puget Sound routes matters under the Integrity Code to different venues, handles sexual-misconduct complaints under a separate policy, and leaves academic progression to the program or school. The venue determines who decides, how long you have, what standard applies, and whether an advisor may attend or speak. Pin that down before you write, because the same facts can be processed as an integrity violation or as an academic-standing decision, and only one of those gives you a hearing. A decision that is disciplinary in substance but carries an academic label deserves to be challenged on that ground alone, because deference of the kind described in Horowitz and Ewing attaches to academic evaluation rather than to fact-finding about misconduct. Identify your track: academic misconduct, student conduct, Title IX, or academic dismissal.
What to do first
Pull the current Student Integrity Code from the university’s own site — it appears in both the student handbook and the catalog, and you want the version that applied to your cohort rather than the one currently posted. Read your syllabus or program handbook alongside it, because a syllabus that permitted collaboration, or a program handbook that promised a remediation step nobody offered, can answer the allegation outright. Calendar the deadline, request your file and the material the university relied on, and preserve your drafting history, messages, and notes before they are gone. Do not sit for a hearing until you understand what the university claims to have. A separate charge for dishonesty during the process is common, and it is usually 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 University of Puget Sound 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 allow counsel to participate, some allow a non-participating advisor, and some allow no outside person at all. Reading the current policy is the first step, and it determines what form the assistance can take.
Common questions
Is the Integrity Board the same thing as the Honor Court?
No, and confusing them wastes preparation. The Integrity Board and administrative hearings are the venues used for Integrity Code matters; the Honor Court’s jurisdiction is defined by student-government documents rather than by the Integrity Code. Read your notice for the name of the body that will actually hear the matter, and confirm the procedure that body uses, because the two are not interchangeable.
I am in the OT or PT program and the problem started on fieldwork. What now?
Move quickly and gather the site-level record first: the placement agreement, the supervision structure, the evaluation forms, the dates, and every message with the site and the academic fieldwork coordinator. Clinical evaluations are written by people who will not be in the room when the decision is made, and they are treated as findings rather than as impressions unless someone puts the context in the file. A cohort-based program also means a lost term is often a lost year, which is why timing arguments belong in the first response and not the appeal.
Will this show up when I apply for licensure or graduate school?
Possibly, and independently of the transcript. Graduate applications and professional licensing questionnaires frequently ask about disciplinary findings whether or not anything is noted on a transcript, and what gets disclosed is the language of the resolution. That language is negotiable more often than students assume.
Other Washington schools: Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University, The Evergreen State College, and University of Washington. The full list is on the Washington student defense page, and the flat-fee record review is described on the fees and scope of services 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 Washington; Washington 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.