Article. Abstract:
Unpaid
internships for law students appear to be on the rise in law firms, as
in other sectors of the economy. I argue that such unpaid internships
are illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and raise ethical
questions under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Moreover, the
practice of law firms offering unpaid internships in lieu of paid
employment substantially harms law students and law school graduates,
who face an increasingly tight market for paid legal employment.
While
law students collectively have an interest in ending this illegal and
exploitative practice, they have a disincentive against taking action
themselves, lest they hurt their prospects in the already perilous
postgraduate job market. To address this collective action problem, I
propose a three-pronged institutional response.
First, the U.S.
Department of Labor should investigate the practice of law firms using
unpaid student interns, and take legal action against FLSA violators.
Second, state bar authorities should investigate and take disciplinary
action against lawyers and firms whose practices regarding unpaid law
student interns violate ethics rules. Finally, the American Bar
Association and the American Association of Law Schools should educate
lawyers and law schools about the legal and ethical problems with unpaid
private law firm internships, and adopt and enforce standards to
discourage the practice.
[posted by John Steele]