Naomi R. Shatz

I protect students, faculty, and employees when their rights are on the line: in negotiations, administrative proceedings, and litigation. On the education side, I represent students from elementary school through grad school facing discrimination, free speech restrictions, or disciplinary action. On the employment side, I counsel and represent employees taking on their employers, with a particular focus on discrimination cases and higher ed.

I've built a national reputation in Title IX law representing students, staff, and professors on both sides of campus sexual assault and harassment cases — whether they're the one who reported it or the one accused. Because I work in both higher education and employment law, I'm able to help grad students, faculty, and staff figure out where they're protected, since their situation often falls under both sets of rules at once.

I bring creative legal thinking and a deep grasp of sexual harassment and assault law to every case, and I show up as a fearless advocate for my clients. I've walked students through filing assault complaints and navigating their school's process, and I've taken Title IX claims to court for students who lost access to their education because of harassment or a hostile environment.

I've also advised students accused of misconduct through their school's disciplinary proceedings, many of whom were ultimately cleared of wrongdoing. When schools get it wrong, I've won numerous injunctions in state and federal court, requiring the the schools to suspend discipline they imposed improperly and putting my clients' education back on track while we fight the underlying case. I negotiate resolutions that protect my clients' academic records, and when negotiation isn't enough, I take the case to court.

Representative matters include:

• Won a preliminary injunction requiring a state university to allow my client to continue his education after he was improperly suspended for exercising his free speech rights during a protest.
• Won a motion to dismiss criminal charges of civil rights violations for lack of probable cause in a high-profile case against two students arising out of an on-campus protest.
• Won multiple preliminary injunctions requiring clients' schools to readmit them after they had improperly expelled the clients for sexual misconduct and other alleged disciplinary issues.
• Represented numerous victims of sexual misconduct in Title IX proceedings at their schools, winning their cases and ensuring that they were able to continue their education in a safe environment.
• Negotiated a substantial settlement on behalf of a female graduate student at a major university shortly before a trial in a gender discrimination case.
• Negotiated a substantial settlement on behalf of a university staff member who was sexually harassed by her boss.
• Assisted numerous clients accused of sexual assault who were found not responsible by their schools, and helped my clients successfully defend those decisions on appeal.
• Negotiated a settlement for a public high school student who was harassed and then assaulted at school by her ex-boyfriend.
• Negotiated a settlement on behalf of middle school students who experienced race discrimination at their charter school.

I take that same eye for discrimination issues into my employment practice, where I represent people facing discrimination and retaliation at work because of their race, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. Many of my clients are university employees, including professors, staff, grad students, and I help them assert their rights under both employment and education law, including in research misconduct proceedings. I've also helped numerous clients negotiate their way out of a job with a favorable severance package when that's the path they want. My litigation on behalf of employees regularly takes me before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and into state and federal court. Beyond employment, I take on complex civil matters as well, often involving free speech and other First Amendment rights.Representative matters include:

• Obtained a settlement for a professor raising a First Amendment challenge to his University's decision to terminate his employment.
• Obtained a high six-figure settlement for a client with claims under the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave law (PFML) who was terminated the day she returned from maternity leave.
• Defeated a motion for summary judgment in a case alleging that multiple clients experienced race discrimination and retaliation while employed by a local municipality.
• Secured a client’s reinstatement to a position to which she had been promoted and obtained a significant monetary settlement against the Department of Correction for gender discrimination, equal pay, wage and hour, disability, and FMLA claims.
• Represented a client in a federal case before the First Circuit Court of Appeals against the Transportation Security Administration. The suit alleged that the TSA’s invasive whole-body pat-down procedures violate traveler’s Fourth Amendment Rights and discriminate against travelers who have disabilities that require them to have metal joint implants.
• Represented a news reporter in a First Amendment case when he was banned from a regional airport and public meetings related to the airport. We successfully negotiated a settlement that restored his access to the airport and public meetings.

I also handle appeals to the Massachusetts and federal appellate courts, and write amicus briefs on issues relating to my practice. 

Before joining Zalkind, I was a Skadden Fellow and a staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). In this role, I represented one of the first students in the country alleging discrimination by his school in violation of Title IX for ignoring his complaints of harassment by other students based on a failure to conform to gender stereotypes. I helped this client secure a settlement wherein the school district not only compensated the student but agreed to overhaul its policies and practices for preventing and addressing harassment of students. I also represented New York City public school students in a class-action suit challenging police practices in the schools.

• Member, Boston Bar Association Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Section (Co-Chair 2024-2026)
• Member, Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association
• Member, Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts Amicus Committee
• Provide pro bono legal counsel through the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and National Lawyers Guild

• Frequently write on legal issues surrounding Title IX, sexual assault and sexual misconduct, gender discrimination in educational institutions, and related matters
• Invited by the U.S. Department of Education to join a group of experts for a roundtable discussion about how best to address Title IX sexual assault and sexual misconduct (2017)
• Frequently provide my expertise to the press on matters related Title IX sexual assault & sexual misconduct, free speech rights, and other legal issues related to education

• The Education Lawyers, Massachusetts Recommended Attorney (2026-2027)
• Best Lawyers in America
• Education Law (2022-present)
• Employment Law: Individuals (2022-present)
• Litigation: Labor and Employment (2022-present)
• Criminal Defense: General Practice (2022-present)
• Super Lawyers
  • Super Lawyers (2023-present)
  • Rising Stars, Massachusetts (2016 to 2022)
• Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Go to Lawyers, Higher Education (2024)
• Women's Leadership Initiative, Women's Bar Association (Class of 2020)
• Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Excellence in the Law: Up & Coming Lawyer (2018)

I went to law school because I wanted a career that could move the needle on gender equity, and I spent it working in women's rights organizations and legal clinics on cases here and abroad. Representing students in New York high schools on dating violence, sexual harassment, and school-to-prison pipeline issues is where I really found my passion and learned how one client's case fits into the bigger fight. That work is also where I learned to take what I know about anti-discrimination law, Title IX, and student rights and turn it into strategies that actually get my clients what they're after and move the law to be more protective of individuals' rights.