Skadden Loses Appeal to Contract Attorney

Temporary lawyers may be eligible for overtime if the work they do is so basic that it doesn’t constitute the practice of law, the Second Circuit Appeals Court ruled this week. David Lola, hired by a staffing agency, sued Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, claiming he deserved overtime pay for extra hours he worked on a document-review case. Reuters reports that more than half of law firms use contract attorneys for reviewing vast quantities of documents, often for litigation, because it’s cheaper than paying junior associates, whose salaries can begin at $160,000 a year.