About Nancy Potter
Nancy Potter is an education attorney whose practice focuses on Title IX, student discipline, academic integrity, disability accommodations, and Section 504 disability discrimination.
She represents students and families navigating school and university processes and serves educational institutions as an independent hearing officer and appointed advisor.
Credentials
Former Supervisory Attorney and Team Leader / U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights
Former Staff Attorney / Education Law Center
Independent Hearing Officer and Appointed Advisor / K-12 and Higher Education
Title IX, Section 504, and Student Conduct Practice
Professional Background
Before founding Potter Law, Nancy served as a Supervisory Attorney and Team Leader at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in the Philadelphia Regional Office. In that role, she led a team investigating complaints against schools, colleges, and universities under Title IX, Title VI, Section 504, and related federal civil rights laws.
Before joining OCR, Nancy was a staff attorney at the Education Law Center, where she worked on policy reform and student rights issues at the federal, state, and local level.
Nancy also served as a staff attorney at KidsVoice, a nonprofit legal agency representing abused, neglected, and at-risk youth. She later founded and led the Pittsburgh office of McAndrews Law Offices, handling complex education civil rights disputes.
Current Practice
Nancy’s practice includes two sides of education law work.
For students and families, she handles Title IX investigations and hearings, student conduct and disciplinary proceedings, academic integrity matters, disability accommodation disputes, Section 504 disability discrimination, appeals, and university complaints.
For schools and institutions, she serves as an independent hearing officer and appointed advisor in student discipline, Title IX, and Section 504 grievance matters. She also provides training and professional education for institutional staff, student organizations, and professional audiences.
This dual perspective informs both her advocacy for families and her institutional work. Her experience representing students through these processes means she understands how they work in practice, not just on paper. Schools that hire her for hearing officer or advisor roles get someone who has seen these proceedings from both sides.
I also write a newsletter about how college systems work
Education and Admission
J.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Law
B.S., Oklahoma State University
Judicial clerkship, Honorable Oliver J. Lobaugh
Admitted to practice in Pennsylvania
Get in Touch
Students and families can schedule a consultation to discuss a specific matter. Schools and institutions can contact the office about hearing officer, appointed advisor, or training services.