WEBINAR: Please join us for this presentation on July 12th @ 1:00pm ET
In 2015, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued significant decisions in regards to the legal ramifications of unpaid internships. In the cases brought before the court, the plaintiffs – unpaid interns – alleged that they should have been classified as employees and paid for their time. As a result, they brought claims for, among other things, unpaid wages on a class-wide basis.
On appeal in both cases, the Second Circuit adopted a balancing standard called the “primary beneficiary test” and held that district courts should use this test when analyzing whether an individual should have been classified as an intern or an employee.
So what does this mean for you, your students and employer partners?
In light of recent challenges to unpaid internship programs by federal and state departments of labor and unpaid interns themselves, there is a great deal of confusion regarding the obligations in setting up and managing unpaid internship programs. Many employers and institutions of higher learning have begun questioning if unpaid internship programs are still feasible in today’s ever-increasingly litigious environment.
Join us for this exclusive presentation to learn:
- best-practices for facilitating internships and experiential education.
- how to help your employer partners minimize legal risk while creating a beneficial internship program.
- how to build lasting relationships with employers through meaningful partnerships.
- components of an exceptional internship program
By registering, you’ll receive:
- LIVE, web access to the training session for all your interns plus the ability to participate in the Q&A Session.
- A video recording of this event and the slidedeck.
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ABOUT THE PRESENTER
RACHEL BIEN, a Partner at Outten & Golden LLP in New York and a Co-Chair of its Class & Collective Action Practice Group, represents employees in class action wage and hour and discrimination cases. She is also a member of the firm’s Public Interest Committee.
Ms. Bien has represented thousands of workers in wage and hour class and collective actions. She currently represents unpaid interns in minimum wage and overtime lawsuits against Hearst Corp., Fox Searchlight Pictures, and The Charlie Rose Show and has represented hundreds of restaurant workers in overtime and tip theft cases against New York City restaurants. She has also litigated many cases involving workers misclassified as “exempt” from overtime laws, including Entry-Level Auditors, Medicaid Marketing Representatives, Financial Advisors, Mortgage Brokers, and Exterminators.
In addition to wage and hour cases, Rachel has also represented workers in discrimination class actions, including female grocery store workers steered into dead-end jobs without opportunities for promotion and African American and Latino workers denied jobs because of their criminal histories.
She graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2005 and joined Outten & Golden LLP in October 2006 after serving as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Thomas G. Nelson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Bien is admitted to practice in the State of New York, the District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bar/Professional Activity – Ms. Bien is an active member of the ABA Section on Labor and Employment Law, where she is a Track Coordinator for the 6th Annual CLE Conference and serves on the Section’s Outreach to Law Students Committee, as well as the ABA’s Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. She is a member of the bar of New York.
Speaking Engagements – Ms. Bien speaks frequently on wage and hour and complex litigation topics, including joint- and co-employment relationships, class action settlements, mandatory arbitration and class action waiver issues, FLSA exemptions, and restaurant worker laws.
- Speaker: “Uber Alles? Implications of the ‘Share Economy’,” Institute of Judicial Administration, and Center for Labor and Employment Law, New York University School of Law(New York, NY)
- Panelist: “Should the Law on Tipping Be Changed?,” NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law: Panel on Tipping (New York, NY)
- Panelist: “Are Unpaid Internships Still Viable?”, ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law, 9th Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference (Philadelphia, PA)
- Speaker: “The Evolving Definition Of “Employee”, Protecting Pay, Representing Workers with Wage & Hour Claims, NELA Spring Seminar (Washington, DC)
- Speaker: “Wage and Hour Update”, Employment Law Institute 2014, Practising Law Institute, (New York, NY)
- Panelist: “How to Effectively Maneuver Through the Ever-Changing FLSA Landscape”, Insights and Strategies on the Effective: Mediation of Employment Disputes, presented by JAMS and the New York Law Journal
- Panelist: “Will Work For Free: Breaking Down the Intern Economy”, Housing Works, (New York, NY)
- Speaker: Settlements in Wage and Hour Class/Collective Actions, Employment Law Institute 2013, Practising Law Institute, (New York, NY)
- Speaker: “Department of Labor and Other Perspectives on Independent Contractor Misclassification Informational Session”, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Intern Bridge, Inc. is a leading college recruiting consulting and research firm responsible for the largest internship-specific surveys in the country. Intern Bridge works hard to close the gap between employers and students by developing resources for employers and universities, delivering seminars, workshops, and webinars, and publishing management books and other best practices materials.