Zelasko-Barrett v. Brayton-Purcell, LLP, 2011 WL 3594015 (Cal. Ct. App. 2011)

Following his graduation from law school but before he had passed the California bar examination, Matthew Zelasko-Barrett worked for the law firm of Brayton-Purcell, LLP as a Law Clerk II. After his voluntary departure from the firm, Zelasko-Barrett filed this lawsuit claiming he was misclassified as an exempt employee while he worked for the firm as a Law Clerk II because he was not at that time "licensed or certified" to practice law by the State of California. The trial court granted the firm's summary judgment motion, and the Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that although the employee was not yet licensed to practice law, he was nonetheless a law school graduate and performed duties that brought him within an exemption for those engaged in a learned profession. See also Soderstedt v. CBIZ S. Cal., LLC, 197 Cal. App. 4th 133 (2011) (trial court properly denied class certification to former accountants where common questions did not predominate and they could not satisfy numerosity requirement or establish they were adequate class representatives).