An effort by a contract attorney to earn overtime wages for routine document review work at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP was tossed out of court Wednesday.

A federal judge in New York dismissed a 2013 suit seeking overtime pay from Quinn Emanuel, finding that the work of contract attorney William Henig, while perhaps a bit dull, qualifies as the practice of law. Under federal labor laws, employers aren’t required to pay overtime to licensed lawyers engaged in legal work who put in more than 40 hours a week.

Meanwhile,...