Comedian David Letterman can breathe easier today after a former unpaid intern dropped her class-action lawsuit against his company and CBS. NYU graduate Mallory Musallam had sued Letterman for failing to pay her and other interns who had been promised no pay for their time working on Letterman’s late-night show.

The trend of interns winning such lawsuits is a troubling one. Nothing could be more destructive for a valuable institution that has traditionally helped ease young, unskilled workers into the professional world.