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Zalkind Law’s Attorney David Russcol clarifies the myriad of misunderstandings surrounding the latest Title IX news. He makes sense of Betsy Devos’s “retreat” on Title IX – which is just the start of a process – and dispels some fears around what the future of Title IX might look like. Though DeVos has withdrawn the Dear Colleague Letter, she has not indicated what she intends to replace it with. Russcol offers some thoughts on the rulemaking process going forward, and encourages us to think of this as an opportunity to make things better for both accused students and those who have suffered from sexual misconduct. Read the article here.

Zalkind Law’s Ruth O’Meara-Costello was quoted in the Boston Globe’s article regarding a recent lawsuit filed against the US Department of Education over interim policy guidance for Title IX cases. Read the article and Attorney O’Meara-Costello’s thoughts here.

Vox.com interviews ZDB Attorney Naomi Shatz on new Title IX guidelines. Shatz praises elements of the new guidelines that provide more clarity and transparency to students, but notes there is still work to be done to ensure that schools adequately address hostile environments while respecting the rights of accused students. Read the full story here.

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it was rescinding its 2011 Dear Colleague Letter on Sexual Violence and its 2014 Questions and Answers on Sexual Violence, and issued a Questions and Answers on Campus Sexual Misconduct while noting that it intends to engage in formal rule-making on the topic. Attorney Naomi Shatz spoke to Inside Higher Ed about the interim regulations. The article can be found here.

Last week, Education Secretary Betsy Devos announced she would be revisiting Title IX guidance for colleges and universities. Attorneys O’Meara-Costello and Shatz spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about their experience representing complainants and accused students under current campus Title IX procedures, and reflect on what changes these proposed revisions may bring. Read the article here.

In an article published last week in the Boston Bar Journal, Ruth O’Meara Costello and David Rangaviz write about recent decisions in the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) regarding search-and-seizure law that address digital searches and the seizure of electronic data, as well as race relations in the context of police encounters. In the article, available here, Ruth and David discuss how, with these decisions, the SJC is both raising the bar for evidence required to justify digital search-and-seizures and also recognizing how racial bias plays a role in criminal practice and procedure