Client Alerts
Ninth Circuit Finding in Pharmaceutical Sales Reps Case is a Coup for Big Pharma
By Barbara Johnson, Neal Mollen & Derek Bottcher
On February 14, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed employers (and particularly pharmaceutical manufacturers) an important Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) victory, concluding that defendant (and Paul Hastings client) SmithKline Beecham Corporations (GSK) pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) were outside sales employees, and thus properly classified as exempt from the FLSA overtime-pay requirements. (