A federal judge in Manhattan threw out a lawsuit by a former contract lawyer for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who accused the firm and its legal staffing agency of violating federal overtime pay laws.
In his 15-page order dismissing the case on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan said that contract lawyer David Lola was providing overtime-exempt legal services when he worked for Skadden as a temporary document reviewer in North Carolina, and was therefore not entitled to overtime pay under federal wage-and-hour law. Lola had claimed that the duties he performed for Skadden should not be considered “the practice of law”—which is recognized as overtime-exempt under federal law—because they required no legal judgment or discretion.
