From Campus Complaint to Career Consequences: Representing Students in Title IX, Academic Misconduct, and University Disciplinary Proceedings

Terrell A. Ratliff, Esq., Co-Founding Managing Partner | Ratliff Jackson LLP

Terrell A. Ratliff, Esq. is co-founding managing partner of Ratliff Jackson LLP, with offices in Cherry Hill, NJ and Philadelphia, PA. He concentrates in Title IX, student discipline, and education law, representing students, families, and institutions across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and both federal districts. He is especially well suited to this program: he represents students and families in Title IX investigations, academic integrity charges, and expulsion hearings, brings over a decade of active criminal defense practice, and leads the firm’s professional license defense practice, bringing the perspective of an advocate who follows a campus case into the criminal courts and before licensing boards.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Ratliff earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Toledo College of Law. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, before the U.S. District Courts for the District of New Jersey, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Eastern District of Michigan, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Ratliff was recognized by Lawyers of Distinction in 2023, and Ratliff Jackson LLP was named a 2025 Top 10 firm in both criminal defense and education law by the American Association of Attorney Advocates.

• Professional Involvement

He is an active member of the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA), which informs his understanding of how institutional Title IX investigations are designed to be conducted.

• Experience

Mr. Ratliff’s student defense and license defense work is grounded in over a decade of active criminal defense practice across New Jersey and Pennsylvania state courts and federal courts in the Third Circuit. He represents students and families in Title IX investigations, academic integrity charges, emergency suspensions, expulsion hearings, and code of conduct proceedings nationwide, and he leads the firm’s professional license defense practice, representing physicians, nurses, educators, and other state-licensed practitioners in board investigations and disciplinary proceedings. ®

Kyle Anthony Adams, Pennsylvania Managing Attorney | Ratliff Jackson LLP

Kyle Anthony Adams is the Pennsylvania Managing Attorney at Ratliff Jackson LLP, where he leads the firm’s Pennsylvania practice with a focus on education law, civil litigation, and regulatory matters. He represents students, parents, educators, educational institutions, and businesses throughout Pennsylvania in administrative proceedings, state courts, and federal courts. He is especially well suited to this program: an education law practice spanning student discipline, Title IX, and academic integrity proceedings, experience before administrative agencies and trial courts, and an active civil and criminal litigation practice, bringing a practical perspective on advocacy, due process, and evidentiary issues.

• Education & Credentials

Before entering private practice, Kyle earned his Bachelor of Arts from Seton Hall University and commissioned as an officer in the United States Army Chemical Corps, serving in the New Jersey Army National Guard. He received his Juris Doctor from Mitchell Hamline School of Law. His military background has shaped his disciplined, strategic approach to legal advocacy, leadership, and problem-solving.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Adams has served as Chairman of a local nonprofit organization and as a member of the Chester County Veterans Advisory Council, reflecting a longstanding commitment to civic leadership.

• Professional Involvement

Beyond the practice of law, Mr. Adams is an active member of the volunteer fire service and serves as a Hazardous Materials Technician with the Chester County HAZMAT Team, supporting emergency response efforts in critical situations.

• Experience

Kyle’s education law practice encompasses student discipline, special education, disability accommodations, Title IX and civil rights matters, academic integrity proceedings, school governance, administrative appeals, and education-related litigation. He regularly advises families, schools, and educational organizations on navigating complex legal and regulatory issues while developing practical strategies to resolve disputes efficiently and effectively. In addition to his education law practice, Kyle maintains an active litigation practice representing clients in complex civil and criminal matters. His experience before administrative agencies and trial courts provides a practical perspective on advocacy, due process, evidentiary issues, and litigation strategy that informs his presentations on education law.

SESSION 1 – The Disciplinary Process from Notice to Appeal: Navigating a System That Is Not a Courtroom | Kyle Anthony Adams | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session walks through the university disciplinary process from the student’s first notice to the final appeal — a process that looks procedural but follows none of the rules litigators assume. It covers the full landscape of matters students face: Title IX allegations, academic misconduct and honor code charges, student conduct proceedings, suspension and expulsion, and discipline in graduate and professional programs, where the stakes compound. Attorneys will learn how to read and use the institution’s own governing documents — the code of conduct, Title IX policy, and procedural rules that function as the controlling law of the case; how to obtain and evaluate the institutional record; how to prepare students for investigative interviews and hearings where counsel’s role is often restricted; and how to preserve procedural objections in a forum with no court reporter and no formal rules of evidence. Attendees will leave with a stage-by-stage map of the proceeding, the advisor’s playbook for each stage, and the habits that protect the record for the appeal — or the lawsuit — that may follow.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Beyond the Campus: Collateral Consequences, Parallel Proceedings, and the Strategic Mistakes That Sink These Cases | Terrell A. Ratliff | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session examines everything that makes campus representation different from the litigation most attorneys know — starting with the consequences that extend far beyond the university. Attorneys will learn how disciplinary findings follow students into professional licensing, bar character and fitness review, graduate and medical school admissions, and future employment — and how to litigate the proceeding with those downstream records in mind; how to manage parallel criminal or civil exposure, including the Fifth Amendment problem when a campus hearing runs ahead of a criminal case, and the discovery uses each proceeding makes of the other; and the recurring strategic mistakes attorneys make when they treat a university proceeding like traditional civil or criminal litigation — over-lawyering interviews, alienating the decision-maker, missing the institution-specific procedures that decide these cases. Attendees will leave with a collateral-consequences checklist that travels with every campus case, a framework for sequencing parallel proceedings, and the practical tools for protecting the record while working within — not against — the institution’s own process.