Finding Title IX through a Historic Supreme Court Case
Photo caption: Leslie Annexstein today and just after graduating law school
Enjoy the first article in our series where we interview our team members to learn how they came to this work. In Leslie Annexstein‘s case, as a “baby lawyer” she happened to take a phone call that initiated a shift in Title IX and, along the way, it helped forge her career path.
Leslie Annexstein’s career has been shaped by a fascination with how people come together within institutions—and how those institutions can create environments that are fair, inclusive, and effective. A lawyer by training with an academic background in sociology and anthropology, she has spent her career at the intersection of civil rights, education, and organizational culture.
Before joining Grand River Solutions, Leslie served as Assistant Vice President for Equity and Title IX Coordinator at American University. Prior to that, she held leadership roles at Howard University and the University of Maryland, College Park, often helping build offices from the ground up. At these universities, she was the first person hired into newly created Title IX or civil rights leadership positions, giving her a unique perspective on how institutions develop systems for addressing discrimination, harassment, and equity concerns.
Her path into this work began at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she litigated employment discrimination cases in the Civil Rights Division. She both investigated and litigated cases, an experience that revealed an unexpected passion for investigations and fact-finding. While her early work focused on employment discrimination, her interest was always broader: understanding how diverse groups of people come together in workplaces and educational settings, and how civil rights frameworks help those communities function.
A pivotal moment came during her time at the National Women’s Law Center. As a young attorney, she unexpectedly found herself helping work on the landmark Supreme Court case that established schools’ responsibility to address student-on-student sexual harassment under Title IX.
“This crazy, incredible thing happened to me after I had only been on the job for two weeks—it was summer and everyone was out on vacation. So I ended up picking up the phone—it was a call from the Supreme Court saying they were accepting a case, which ended up being Davis versus Monroe County Board of Education.”
LA Hawaii
Leslie on vacation just previous to her work on the historic Title IX case.
She vividly recalls her supervisor, Verna Williams, arguing the case as the justices grappled with its implications. One moment stands out in particular. The Justices were pursuing a line of questioning with hypotheticals about situations in which a school might be responsible for the acts of its students when a justice asked: What if we move this into the race context? This seemed to open up the debate. The justices ultimately concluded in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education that schools may be held responsible under Title IX for student-student sexual harassment and articulated the standard for when a school would be responsible.
For Leslie, the experience was both professionally formative and historically significant, connecting her directly to a watershed moment in defining Title IX protections, ultimately inspiring her return to higher education. Rather than shaping the law from the courtroom, she wanted to be where “the rubber meets the road”—helping institutions implement these principles in real-world settings. She describes campus Title IX work as some of the most challenging work in the field because it requires balancing individual needs, institutional responsibilities, legal requirements, and community expectations all at once.
Throughout her career, Leslie has viewed her role as an advocate for the integrity of the process and the care of all the people engaged in the process. As a Title IX coordinator, she saw herself as the steward of the law’s implementation—maintaining fairness, neutrality, and trust, even when doing so was difficult.
She also notes the unique differences between working with students and employees. While both groups require support and education, students often approach Title IX offices with broad expectations, creating opportunities for deeper conversations with them about rights, responsibilities, and the purpose of the law and the requirements of the process under the Title IX regulations.
Leslie joined Grand River Solutions in part because she wanted to continue learning. After working at multiple institutions, she was eager to see how different campuses approach similar challenges and to share lessons learned across a broader range of schools. She was also drawn to the opportunity to support institutions that may not have the resources to build large compliance offices on their own.
Equally important was the chance to join a community of peers. On many campuses, Title IX professionals are often the only people doing this work. At Grand River Solutions, Leslie found a professional community where colleagues share similar experiences, challenges, and expertise.
When asked what advice she would give to others entering the field, her answer is simple: remain a lifelong learner, stay flexible, and be a good listener. Success in this work, she believes, comes from being open to different perspectives, learning from every institution and every person you encounter, and recognizing that effective civil rights work depends on collaboration. Universities are complex ecosystems, and no Title IX or equity office can succeed alone.
At its core, Leslie sees her work as connecting individual experiences with institutional structures—helping people while also helping organizations build systems that serve their communities more effectively. It is a balance of empathy, process, and continuous learning that has defined her career from the courtroom to the campus and beyond.
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