Alec Berezin

Alec Berezin www.dworkenlaw.com/attorneys/partners/alec-berezin/ received his B.A. in 1970 from Miami University and his J.D. in 1973 from Case Western Reserve University. He is a member of the Lake County Bar Association, the Ohio Association of Justice, and the American Association of Justice. From 1980 to 1991, Mr. Berezin was the assistant law director and prosecutor for the City of University Heights. He acted as a visiting judge for Shaker Heights Municipal Court from 1992 to 2001. He serves on the arbitration panels for Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and Lake County Common Pleas Court, and as settlement week chair of the Lake County Bar Association, he was instrumental in developing a year-round mediation program in Lake County Common Pleas Court. He continues to serve as a mediator in the Lake County Common Pleas Mediation Program. Mr. Berezin has served as a lecturer in continuing legal education programs sponsored by Case Western Reserve School of Law and Professional Educations Systems, and he has been a contributor to Am Jur Proof of Facts. He has been active in the community having served as president of the boards of Congregation Bethaynu and Adoption Network Cleveland, and he continues to serve as a life trustee on the board of Menorah Park Center for Senior Living.

Mr. Berezin's areas of practice include civil litigation including business and commercial trial work, personal injury, and professional negligence.

Dworken & Bernstein www.dworkenlaw.com offers a full range of legal services for businesses, individuals, and families in litigation and transactions with offices in Painesville and downtown Cleveland. Dworken & Bernstein is the largest law firm in the Lake, Geauga, and Ashtabula County area.

Ohio Lawyers Give Back www.ohiolawyersgiveback.org was founded by Dworken & Bernstein Co., L.P.A. to promote the use of cy pres in class action settlements. When a class action is settled, plaintiff and defendant agree to a fund amount to pay all class members. Since many class members have moved, passed-away, or can't be found, millions of settlement dollars go unclaimed. That settlement money is intended to benefit the class—rather than revert to the wrongdoing defendant—so the ancient doctrine is now being used to distribute the unclaimed money to charities and non profits.

Over $22 million dollars has already been distributed, just by the sponsors, a single law firm. If cy pres were used more broadly, hundreds of millions of dollars each year would be available to help charities, non-profits, and the communities where we live. This website is dedicated to advancing the use of cy pres in all class action settlements where a large pool of unclaimed settlement funds is expected.