Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures

Outten & Golden secures landmark settlement for Hollywood interns, part of a series of cases that successfully changed the way media and entertainment companies pay their interns.

Deadline called it “an industry game-changer in an era where the term is too often overused.” The Hollywood reporter called it a “landmark” case that explored privilege, fairness and social justice in how people try to gain status in the media and entertainment industry.

Armed with information from Fox Searchlight intern Eric Glatt and his colleague Alex Grossman, we filed a class action lawsuit in 2010, alleging that Fox’s unpaid internship program violated minimum wage and overtime laws.

Shortly after, we filed amended claims brought by Kanene Gratts, who worked on Searchlight’s (500) Days of Summer as well as Eden Antalik, who participated in the Fox Entertainment Group internship program.

Despite the media and entertainment industry’s common practice to not pay interns, we argued they were entitled to the minimum wage, overtime, spread of hours pay on days on which they work more than 10 hours, and reimbursement for personal cell phones and laptop computers that were used on film production work.

After years of litigation, a federal judge issued a first of its kind ruling that the interns were indeed protected by federal and state wage and hour laws.

That ruling paved the way for a settlement with the movie studio, covering individuals who had unpaid internships with Fox Filmed Entertainment, Fox Group, Fox Networks Group, and Fox Interactive Media (later renamed News Corp. Digital Media).