Title IX for the Non-Specialist: Representing Students and Employees in Campus Proceedings Under the 2020 Rules

Sean H. Sobel, Founding Attorney | Sobel Law Solutions, LLC

Sean H. Sobel is the Founding Attorney of Sobel Law Solutions, LLC, a Cleveland, Ohio firm he launched in March 2026 after more than fifteen years practicing employment and civil rights law at a large national firm and a Cleveland boutique practice. He maintains a national Title IX practice that spans every seat at the table — serving as advisor to complainants and respondents at colleges, universities, and K-12 institutions across multiple states, conducting independent Title IX investigations and hearing-officer engagements for educational institutions, and litigating Title IX private-right-of-action and Section 1983 claims in federal court. Alongside his campus work, Sean represents Ohio employees in discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, FMLA, wrongful termination, severance, and non-compete matters before administrative agencies, Ohio common pleas courts, and the federal district courts. Recognized by Super Lawyers for fourteen consecutive years, his Title IX work has drawn national press coverage, and he brings to this program a practitioner’s view of how the 2020 regulations actually play out in live hearings, cross-examination, and investigations.

• Education & Credentials

Sean earned his J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 2010 and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2007. During law school he served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Peter C. Economus of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and as a legal intern in the Office of Federal Operations at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — the office that adjudicates federal-sector discrimination appeals. He is admitted to practice in Ohio, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, and has been a member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association since 2010.

• Recognition & Leadership

Sean has been recognized by Super Lawyers for fourteen consecutive years, including selection to the Ohio Rising Stars list every year from 2014 through 2025 and to the full Ohio Super Lawyers list for 2026 and 2027 — a distinction reserved for no more than five percent of attorneys in the state. He holds a 10.0 “Superb” rating from Avvo, has been named one of the Three Best Rated® Top 3 Employment Lawyers in Cleveland, and received the American Institute of Legal Counsel’s Client Satisfaction Award in 2016. His Title IX representation of students and employees has generated national press coverage, and he is a published contributor to the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Journal, most recently co-authoring “When Severance Agreements Bar ERISA Long-Term Disability Claims” (Jan./Feb. 2026). He is a frequent speaker at accredited seminars, bar programs, and community legal town halls.

• Professional Involvement

Sean’s Title IX practice is deliberately built on both sides of the process. He serves as an advisor to complainants and respondents in campus proceedings nationwide — preparing students, faculty, and staff for interviews, drafting written submissions and responses to investigative reports, and conducting the live cross-examination the 2020 regulations require at hearings — and he is separately retained by colleges and universities to conduct independent Title IX investigations and serve as a hearing officer. That dual vantage point gives him an unusually clear read on how decision-makers weigh evidence, where advisors win and lose credibility, and how institutional process choices create or foreclose appellate and litigation issues. Beyond the campus, Sean has been a long-standing advocate for equal access to the legal system, authoring “More Should Be Done to Ensure Deaf Individuals Have Equal Access to the Law” for the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Journal and presenting on deaf discrimination and barriers to effective communication, reasonable accommodations at work and school, and employee rights at programs for bar associations, the NAACP, and community audiences.

• Experience

Sean has practiced employment and civil rights law since 2010. He began his career as an associate at Javitch, Block & Rathbone and then served as a staff attorney at BakerHostetler, one of the nation’s largest law firms, where he handled e-discovery and litigation matters and wrote on spoliation and social-media evidence for the firm’s E-Discovery Newsletter. He then moved to the employee side of the bar as an associate at The Spitz Law Firm before spending nearly a decade (2017–2026) as a Partner at Sobel, Wade & Mapley, LLC, a Cleveland employment-law boutique, where he built and led the firm’s national Title IX practice. In March 2026 he founded Sobel Law Solutions, LLC so that students, employees, and institutions facing Title IX and workplace matters could work directly with an experienced attorney from first call through hearing. Over the past five years he has handled roughly 75 Title IX matters as advisor, investigator, hearing officer, and federal litigator — experience that makes him uniquely positioned to walk non-specialist practitioners through notice, the grievance process, live hearings and cross-examination, and the appeal and litigation pathways under the 2020 Rules.

SESSION 1 – Title IX for the Non-Specialist: Representing Students and Employees in Campus Proceedings Under the 2020 Rules | 12:00pm – 2:10pm

This program provides practitioners with a practical framework for representing students and employees in Title IX proceedings under the 2020 rules. It examines the current Title IX landscape following the January 2025 vacatur of the 2024 rule, including why some educational institutions may still be relying on outdated policies. Attendees will explore the critical first 72 hours of a case, including interim measures, no-contact directives, and emergency removals. The program also addresses the advisor’s role, evidence review, and live hearings involving cross-examination at colleges and universities, helping attorneys identify important procedural considerations and protect clients from the earliest stages of a campus proceeding.

The program also examines the broader legal and professional risks that can arise alongside a Title IX matter. Attendees will consider parallel exposure involving criminal investigations, civil claims, and potential consequences for faculty and staff, as well as the relationship between campus proceedings, appeals, and subsequent litigation. The program addresses when a campus decision may support a lawsuit and highlights ethical considerations that can arise during representation. Topics include confidentiality, communicating with and representing students while dealing with parents, and working alongside non-lawyer advisors. The discussion is designed to help non-specialist attorneys approach Title IX matters with greater awareness of the procedural, legal, and ethical issues involved.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm