Shelley Fleming

Ms. Fleming www.dworkenlaw.com/attorneys/associates/Shelley-Fleming/ graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Master of Arts in history from Cleveland State University. She received her Juris Doctorate from Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law in 2006, where she served as an Associate Editor on the Oho Northern University Law Review and was a Dean's Scholarship recipient.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Fleming served as a Staff Attorney at the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court handling all types of civil litigation. She also served as a Judicial Attorney at the Eighth District Court of Appeals, drafting opinions on civil, criminal, probate, and domestic relations issues.

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.