Gender justice in the schools

Zisser Law can serve as an advisor to a victim of sexual/sex-based harassment or sexual abuse during a school or university’s investigation of a complaint. We support both students and staff/faculty. We can also litigate where a school has failed to properly respond to misconduct, or assist in the federal administrative complaint process.

Title IX

Title IX provides protection for students, staff, faculty, and others who have experienced discrimination or sexual abuse at a school or college. Other federal laws provide protection against other forms of discrimination (e.g., race, national origin, disability, etc.)

But the process is cumbersome and can re-traumatize a victim. Title IX Coordinators often are poorly trained or lack resources; they often are not attorneys and do not fully understand the complex processes and intricate underlying federal regulations or do not take a trauma-informed approach. Unfortunately, they frequently do not operate independently from the school or university. Too often students experience “institutional betrayal” — the failure of their school to adequately protect them or vindicate their rights.

Direct Title IX experience

Aaron Zisser worked as a Title IX Coordinator at a nationally ranked university and investigated schools when he was an attorney with the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division — he knows the system and the processes from the inside and can help students navigate the complex procedures to ensure that individuals are held accountable and the university or school does what it must under the law to respond to sexual misconduct or other discrimination.

Hearing advisor for complainant/victim

Every individual who files a report or a complaint — and there is an important difference between these two things — has the right to an “advisor.” That advisor can be an attorney. Often, the person accused of misconduct will retain an attorney as their advisor, and it can be intimidating if the victim isn’t on equal footing in that regard.

Unfortunately, too few attorneys specialize in representing or advising the “complainant,” or victim, while many attorneys are available to represent the accused. While the rights of the accused are important, and every accused person has the right to due process, the voices of survivors can get lost. Survivors of sexual violence and victims of discrimination have rights, too. After all, Title IX is a civil rights law and sexual abuse is a form of gender-based discrimination. As a civil rights attorney, Mr. Zisser represents students who are victims of sexual abuse and other discrimination.

Zisser Law is dedicated to providing robust representation at a cost that is manageable for students and their families.