California’s 1st District Court of Appeal has put the smack-down on a former employee of Novato’s Brayton-Purcell LLP, saying the young man was not entitled to overtime pay even though he was not licensed to practice law when he was employed there.
According to the opinion, Matthew Zelasko-Barrett, now an attorney in Petaluma, Calif., worked as a law clerk at Brayton after graduating from Thomas Jefferson School of Law but before taking and passing the bar exam. In that capacity, the ruling says, he drafted pleadings and discovery demands and responses, did legal research and drafted memoranda of points and authorities and supporting declarations, interviewed witnesses, assisted in deposition preparation and interacted with opposing counsel concerning discovery issues.
