Sokolow's firm had been on the scene at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a tiny liberal arts college that is technically two single-sex schools, long before allegations of a badly mishandled sexual assault case made the front page of the Sunday New York Times earlier his month. A spokesperson for the college says Sokolow has worked with the colleges on an as-needed basis for "nearly a decade." Sokolow has been to campus to train personnel, staff have attended off-campus seminars and ATIXA conferences, and the college uses a video series he developed.

But after the Times wrote a critical article about the system Sokolow helped design for the college, which is now under investigation for Title IX violations, Sokolow was back — this time to publicly defend the panel's decision to clear three football players accused of sexually assaulting Anna.

In a letter to the Times, Maureen Collins Zupan, the chairwoman of the school's board of trustees, wrote that Sokolow, "one of the country's leading experts on the issue," had "affirmed the conclusions" of the case in question and "observed that our process meets or exceeds best practices for higher education."

Zupan did not mention that the school had paid the "leading expert" who was defending it for other services. She did not disclose that the panel under fire used NCHERM's online training series. ("Is there a difference between a video of me or me?" Sokolow said in an email when asked to clarify if he trained the panel in Anna's case. "I did train them, either way you frame it.") Zupan also failed to explain that Sokolow had been formally hired by the school to investigate the process he praised.

Emails obtained by BuzzFeed show that Sokolow was retained by Hobart and William Smith to investigate Anna's appeal, which alleged, among other issues, that she did not receive a fair hearing.

And he contacted Anna in a way her lawyer says was both unprofessional and unethical.

In an email to Anna on June 17, Sokolow wrote: "Though we have not met, Walt Bogdanich [the Times reporter] may have informed you that I have been engaged by the Colleges to act as of counsel in connection with the Colleges' response to the Title IX complaint". He explained that instead of the college's Title IX coordinator conducting the investigation, Sokolow would be looking into Anna's appeal of the panel's decision because that coordinator was "a potential witness to the alleged discrimination, and is thus conflicted from conducting the investigation herself."

The unexpected and confusing email "disgusted me and dredged up all the trauma of the past year as I was trying to move on," said Anna, who said she had never heard of Sokolow or the purported investigation when he contacted her.

Sokolow also sent separate copies of the email to Anna's lawyer, Inga L. Parsons, and Anna's mother, who wrote to Sokolow asking him for an explanation and to communicate directly with Parsons. Instead, Sokolow sent another email to Anna and her mother saying he would not "dialogue solely with [Parsons]" unless Anna and her mother refused to communicate with him. It was only when Parsons intervened and told him to direct all correspondence solely to her that he complied.

"While I am an attorney, my role in this matter is to investigate the claims of the appeal letter about inequitable processes and Title IX violations," he wrote back to Anna and her mother. "I'm no one's lackey ... I am an impartial arbiter. I am critical of colleges when they screw up, and supportive when they act correctly."

The American Bar Association Code of Professional Responsibility forbids a lawyer to communicate with a represented party without the permission of the party's lawyer. Parsons says she's considering filing a bar complaint on the grounds that he corresponded directly with her clients knowing they were represented by an attorney and continued to do so even after Anna's mother advised him to stop.

"I was shocked by how unprofessional he was," said Parsons. "By his own admission, he says he was hired by the Colleges to act as of counsel in connection with the Colleges' response to the Title IX complaint. As of counsel he is a lawyer, he is not a neutral party. He is a hired gun paid by the same school he claims to be reviewing impartially."

"These self-proclaimed experts like Brett Sokolow who schools hire to try to clean up their mistakes are making a lot of money off survivors' assaults," Anna's mother said. "Schools should be putting that money into prevention, updating their arcane policies, climate surveys, decent training for panelists, faculty and students."

Anna, her mother, and her lawyer made it clear that they would not participate in Sokolow's "impartial" investigation but would be cooperating fully with the Office for Civil Rights in its investigation. Subsequently, Sokolow told the school that he believed Hobart and William Smith's policies and procedures were "appropriate and compliant" and that "the hearing and appeal rendered a fair result given the evidence, and that I would not recommend any substantive change to the outcome," according to the school's spokesperson.