Law Firm Assistant Denied Collective Status in Overtime Suit

Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele LLP convinced a federal judge in Tennessee to deny conditional certification of a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action alleging it cheated its legal assistants out of overtime pay.

Plaintiff Julia Russo failed to present sufficient evidence she and similarly situated employees were subjected to a single firmwide policy or practice that violated the FLSA, Judge Aleta A. Trauger of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee said Wednesday.

Russo, who worked at Moore Ingram’s office in Brentwood, Tenn., for about two years, alleged the firm scheduled its assistants to work 37.5 ...