Melvyn Resnick

Melvyn E. Resnick www.dworkenlaw.com/attorneys/partners/melvyn-resnick/ earned his undergraduate degree in Business and Accounting with honors from Ohio University. He was awarded his law degree from Case Western Reserve School of Law and admitted to the Bar in 1966. Mr. Resnick is a member of the Lake County Bar Association. He is a past president of Tau Epsilon Rho Law Fraternity. He is licensed to practice in all Ohio courts as well as U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, since 1968 and the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.  Mr. Resnick's practice emphasizes real estate, commercial litigation, general business, corporate banking, estate planning, eminent domain litigation, and business acquisitions and sales. Mr. Resnick has actively practiced in these areas for over 30 years. During the last ten years, Mr. Resnick has become involved in various wetland litigation and mitigation matters involving both the state of Ohio and the U.S. EPA and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

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.