LL.M. in Employment Law alumna Christina Harris Schwinn has been published in the Northeastern University Law Journal. The article was adopted from Schwinn’s LL.M. thesis. The article on overtime compensation authored by the Pavese Law Firm partner is titled, “Half-Time or Time and One-Half? Recent Developments Deprive Employees of their Rightful Overtime Compensation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” The article discusses the legislative history and the applicable statutory provisions and regulations, as well as analyzes the Seventh Circuits holding in the *Urnikis-Negro *decision. The case involved the payment of overtime compensation based upon half-time to the plaintiff essentially retroactive in an exempt misclassification case under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.
Schwinn’s asserts that the application of the fluctuating workweek methodology of paying the overtime in a misclassification case is improper, and is not authorized under the FLSA, its regulations, interpretive bulletins or under the United States Supreme Court’s holding in *Overnight Motor Transp. Co., Inc. v. Missel*, 316 U.S. 572, 62 S.Ct. 1216 (1942).
“While much about business and employment has changed in the movement from the industrial age that existed in the 1930s to the technological age of today, the underlying purposes of the FLSA have not,” Schwinn concluded in the article. “Congress passed the FLSA to ensure that covered employees were paid the minimum wage, to ensure they were compensated for overtime work, and to encourage employers to hire new employees rather than working existing employees long hours.”
Schwinn received her second Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School on May 19. The LL.M. degree is an advanced law degree with a focus on a particular practice area. Schwinn’s second LL.M. is in Employment Law and her first LL.M. is in Real Property Land Development and Finance Law which she received from the University of Miami’s Graduate School of Law in 1991.
Schwinn’s primary practice areas are employment law, business transactions, community association law and real estate law. Schwinn is an accomplished public speaker and regularly writes articles that have been published both locally and nationally in a variety of publications. Schwinn is available to speak to local businesses and organizations on a variety of employment law topics and she can be reached at 239-336-6228 or christinaschwinn@paveselaw.com.