CWS 3.0: September 24, 2014

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Court rejects attorney’s overtime demand against buyer, staffing firm

A class action lawsuit against a staffing buyer and its provider for overtime pay brought by an attorney working through the staffing firm was dismissed last week by a federal judge in New York, according to court records.

David Lola worked on a document review project for 15 weeks starting in April 2012. He claimed to log 45 to 55 hours per week, but received the same rate of $25 per hour for all time worked despite putting in more than 40 hours per week. He sued the buyer — law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP — as well as staffing supplier Tower Legal Staffing.

Defendants argued Lola was not owed overtime because licensed attorneys engaged in the practice of law are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions. 

Lola’s situation was complicated because he did document review work in North Carolina although he was not licensed as an attorney in that state — he was a licensed attorney in California. In addition, the documents he worked on were for multi-district litigation based in Ohio, and staffing buyer Skadden is based in New York.

In addition, Lola argued “the document review he performed was not the practice of law because it was so ‘mechanical’ that a paralegal could have done it.”

However, the court agreed with defendants, deciding Lola was a licensed attorney engaged in the practice of law and exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Act’s overtime provision.

The court ruled because Lola performed all his work in North Carolina, that state’s standard must be used in determining whether he practiced law, according to court records. North Carolina allows attorneys with licenses in other states to perform some types of work.

“This case demonstrates the incredible complexity in workforce compliance,” said Bryan Peña, VP, contingent workforce strategies and research, at Staffing Industry Analysts. While this case was decided in favor of the company, buyers should keep compliance in mind on an ongoing basis.