Cy pres awards boost legal aid in Lake County

The enrichment of the Lake County Bar Foundation by two Cook County attorneys became the subject of Bryan R. Winter’s President’s Page in the April issue of The Docket, the bar association’s monthly magazine.

Winter praised Phillip A. Bock of Chicago and Brian J. Wanca of Rolling Meadows for designating the bar foundation as recipient of a cy pres award of $50,000.

Bock and Wanca were co-counsel in a 19th Circuit class action suit from which some funds were unclaimed.

“Their impact on the foundation will be significant and can act as an inspiration to other members to promote contributions, bequests and other fund-raising efforts,” Winter wrote.

He added that Bock and Wanca previously arranged for Prairie State Legal Services in Lake County to receive cy pres awards totaling $500,000 from two separate cases.

Winter, a partner in the Waukegan firm of Fuqua, Winter & Stiles and a former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, described the origin of the term, pronounced “sigh-pray.”

The doctrine originated in common law as a means of fairly distributing money held in trust when the original purpose of the trust fails or can’t be accomplished. The term comes from the Norman French “cy pres comme possible,” meaning “as near as possible.”

Its use for unclaimed funds in legal matters has expanded from probate court, such as when a beneficiary charity ceases to exist, to class actions, when members of a class cannot be located.

As a result of the recent award, the Lake County Bar Foundation board has begun to examine additional approaches to invigorating efforts to increase funding and programming, Winter said.