How to protect myself from a vindictive grad school?!?

[Spaceboy3000]

I'm trying to figure out what to do:

I was a few semesters into a Counseling grad degree program in a large southern city.  I was enjoying the program and was doing great. (straight A's, etc.)  Unfortunately, a weird series of undeserved, nasty conflicts with two other students led me to seek help from faculty.  Very surprisingly, faculty sided with the actual originators of the conflict (against me), and took it all the way to (unofficially of course), making it extremely clear that I was no longer welcome in the school altogether. (-multiple false accusations of various sorts, and threatening implications, etc.)  To say that they collectively and knowingly acted unethically is a huge understatement.

So I withdrew quietly, after realizing I had no chance of getting the situation fixed.  According to an education attorney here, I basically have no means of general recourse against the school over this, which is frustrating, but apparently that's just how it goes.  So now I am shopping for another similar grad program around here to enroll in and continue with my grad degree.

My concern here is how to protect myself from the vindictiveness of the faculty of my former school.  I imagine that very similar programs at different schools in one city are somewhat in contact with each other, and I really don't want to get "blackballed" from yet another program, or just not get admitted to one, despite my high qualifications and GPA.  I'm trying to round up another attorney to help advise me on this.  Do I propose a non-disclosure agreement with the last school?  Do I (or an attorney) write them a letter to that effect?

Do my concerns seem paranoid?  Throughout this whole debacle I've been asking myself that question, and in literally every case, not only was I not being paranoid, but the outcomes were always as bad, or worse, than I thought they could be.  So at this point, I'm trying to not leave any stone unturned in this matter.  I'm actually trying to contact attorneys NOT in this city, because I've been getting (again unofficial) feedback from local education attorneys that they are hesitant to help because of possible conflicts of interest with this school.

Does anyone here have experience or knowledge of the best way to approach this situation?  I'm really wanting/needing to make sure I do all I can to protect myself from any further trouble from this previous school/situation.