Smart Business Magazine, December 2018

34 Smart Business Cleveland December 2018 2018Pill r Award for Community Service F red DiSanto has always had a strong competitive spirit that dates all the way back to his time as a three sport star athlete at Saint Ignatius High School That drive and determination is still very present in his leadership as chairman and CEO at Ancora both from a business standpoint and through the companys philanthropic efforts Ancora supported 68 different organizations with monetary contributions through the first eight months of 2018 surpassing the number of organizations the company helped in 2017 In addition to these corporate financial contributions there are many more causes individually supported by Ancora employees including DiSanto who himself supported 15 different causes through the years first eight months Ancora encourages its employees to become involved in causes that are personally meaningful Many employees choose to support organizations by serving on a board while others walk run or bike to aid fundraising efforts for events such as Walk MS Cleveland Clinics VeloSano and The Gathering Places Race for the Place Still others donate time and resources to animal rescue groups youth programming and more The company also has a number of employees serving on the boards of for profit organizations Ancora is proud to make every effort to improve its surrounding communities and make an impact in the lives of others Ancora recently entered into a multi year corporate sponsorship agreement with The Foundry Clevelands community rowing and sailing center that is home to a number of local high school rowing teams Ancora prefers to partner with organizations that are making a positive difference in the community Ancora Fred DiSanto chairman and CEO P I L L A R AWA R D H O N O R E E A bout 14 years ago during a final settlement procedure in one of his cases Patrick J Perotti discovered a little known doctrine called cy pres It was during the final stages of this settlement agreement when it was discovered there was money left over from the class action case not all of the participants filled out their form or cashed the checks they received Perotti serves as senior partner at Dworken Bernstein Co LPA and head of the firms class action department Both Perotti and defense counsel did some research and discovered that cy pres a very ancient doctrine allows for unclaimed funds to be distributed to charity It was then determined for that particular case that onehalf of the funds would go to charity and the other half back to the defendant However going forward Perotti made it a point to always require a determination be made where such unclaimed funds would go in any future settlement agreement By doing so it allows the court or the parties by agreement to put these funds to beneficial use During the past 14 years 37 million dollars in unclaimed funds has been distributed throughout Northeast Ohio to a wide variety of charities and nonprofits Perotti and his firm founded Ohio Lawyers Give Back to actively teach and encourage the wide use of cy pres throughout Ohio and across the country If it were used in every class action case filed solely in Ohio more than 60 million each year would go to charities and nonprofits Dworken Bernstein Co LPA Patrick J Perotti senior partner and head of class action department P I L L A R AWA R D H O N O R E E