Revisiting the Treatment of Unpaid Internships Under the Fair Labor Standards Act

The extent to which the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies to internships and other similar training programs was one of the cutting edge legal issues argued during last spring’s Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition.  In the months since the Jenkins Competition concluded, both the Second Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit have issued rulings that clarify the legal issues addressed in the Jenkins Competition.  The treatment of interns under the Fair Labor Standards Act is once again making news.

The fictitious respondent in the Jenkins Competition was a law student who participated in an unpaid internship at a large, for-profit law firm.  As part of this program, the student primarily worked on pro bono matters under the supervision of a senior attorney.  The student was also able to participate in a mock trial and attend weekly training lunches.  However, the student also volunteered to work on a number of projects that were not attached to any pro bono cases or training.  They were more of an administrative or secretarial nature.  After an unceremonious dismissal from the program (which was the basis for another claim in the case), the law student brought a suit against the firm, claiming that she was owed compensation for the work she did under her summer internship program because she qualified as an employee under the FLSA.  The law firm, as one would expect, challenged this assertion, claiming that the student fell under the “trainee” exception carved out by the Supreme Court in Walling v. Portland Terminal Co. (1947).

The Court in Walling clearly meant to provide an opportunity for individuals to be trained without pay by a for-profit business in an industry the individual hoped to enter later.  In its ruling, the Court ruled that the FLSA’s definition of an employee as someone who is “suffer[ed] or permit[ed] to work” was “obviously not intended to stamp all [working] persons as employees.”  The Court saw the benefit of internship programs for both those seeking to be trained as well as the businesses seeking to develop their future workforce; classifying all such individuals as employees under the FLSA, and thus requiring payment, would limit training opportunities and hurt both groups.  The problem with the Court’s ruling in Walling is that it did not establish a clear test for determining whether an individual is an intern or whether she is an employee covered by the protections in the FLSA.

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Our Peacebuilding Pope

elliot-popeThe Pope, a rabbi and an imam…it sounds like the beginning of a very funny joke but last week was a reality.  As you likely know, last Friday the Pope hosted an interfaith prayer gathering at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  This was a trailblazing event and I’ve linked to the video here for those you who have not yet seen it.

As a professor at a Jesuit university, I am delighted by this Pope’s Jesuit background and our claim at affiliation.  This service last Friday also was particularly significant for me since the rabbi (the one in the picture above) is my very talented brother in law, Elliot Cosgrove.  You can link to his sermon about this experience here.

Should you watch the video, here are some times noted:  Cardinal Timothy Dolan speaks first; Elliot begins speaking at 2:55 until about 8 minutes in (alternating with the Imam); the Pope speaks after that with representatives of many faiths speaking after him.

And here is our family’s favorite shot of the day–the Pope greeting my nieces and nephew after the ceremony is concluded (the very cute kid in the middle and his sisters are behind him.)

jed-popeAmazingly, this was also caught in the video of the day if you want to see it happening at around 47 minutes in.  As Elliot put it in his sermon:

My warmest memory of all from yesterday relates not directly to the pope, but to my dear friend His Eminence Cardinal Dolan, to whom the city of New York owes a great debt of gratitude for his inspired leadership. The formal part of the program had ended, and as participants were greeting each other, the pope stood for pictures with assorted dignitaries. Off to the side, Cardinal Dolan and I greeted each other warmly, and he said, “Elliot, aren’t your children here?” When I signaled to him where they were sitting, Cardinal Dolan insisted, “Well bring them up here, they should be up here!” I turned around, caught my children’s eye, waved them over, and to make a long story short, was able to give them each the gift of a handshake and smile from the pope that they will never forget.

It is this story, more than any other, to which I have returned in the hours since the event concluded. That in the split second of the chaotic recessional Cardinal Dolan saw me and didn’t see a rabbi, or even necessarily a Jew, but friend and a dad who probably wanted what every dad wants: to make his children happy. It was a gesture of supreme menschlichkeit, and it speaks volumes of Cardinal Dolan and the church he represents. If each one of us had it within ourselves to recognize each other not for our titles, stature, or faith, but for the human beings we are, and then performed acts of friendship and service to validate that common humanity, well then, just think how much better off this world would be. I am grateful to Cardinal Dolan for many things, but it is that one gesture as much as anything, exemplifying the spirit of his ministry, that is worthy of emulation. May we all similarly seek, with humanity and humility, to do so in our own lives, and may the spirit of Pope Francis’s visit continue to inspire our great city for many years to come.

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Legal and Policy Aspects of the Water-Energy Nexus

Modern systems of water and energy are tightly intertwined.  Significant amounts of water are expended during the phases of energy production, from resource extraction to final generation.  In turn, energy powers the equipment that extracts groundwater or surface water, purifies water to the EWNstandards required for human consumption, pumps water to our communities and businesses, and finally treats wastewater before releasing it to the environment.  That relationship was the focus of a joint meeting held here at Marquette University earlier this month between The Water Council and the Mid-west Energy Research Consortium.  The two organizations plan to design a joint roadmap to advance local efforts, including academic research, in the “energy-water nexus.”

To date, significantly less attention has been paid to the legal and policy aspects of this “nexus.”  Policy strategies surrounding the “nexus” have generally focused on efficiency measures to limit demand for both water and energy, especially in sectors that use both such as agriculture and power generation.  More innovation solutions might include sustainability index measurements, pricing corrections, and alternative decisional frameworks that include broader groups of stakeholders.

The conceptual “nexus” model is not without its critics, however.

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