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About Us HARRY SNYDERMr. Snyder has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1963. He has a long background and experience in cy pres relief, philanthropic best practices (including grant review and recommendations) and consumer protection. As the Director of the West Coast office of Consumers Union he established procedures, including modification of California's escheat laws, for the Court, in the case of People vs. Avco Finance, to authorize cy pres relief in class action cases. In the Levi Straus case he and Consumers Union went further, acting as Amicus, successfully arguing to the Court that the establishment of the California Consumer Protection Foundation was a proper exercise of the Court's equitable powers and an acceptable way to facilitate the distribution of cy pres relief in that case.Another aspect of his work at Consumers Union was a national project that captured the public assets of non-profit health insurers and providers when they converted to for-profit corporations. That work helped regulators, community groups and Attorneys General establish Health Foundations to distribute these assets. This work, too, was based on an extension of cy pres principles as the next best use of these public funds. As a result of this work over 160 Health Foundations have been established nationally, with over $16 billion dollars in assets. The California Endowment and the Wellness Foundation are two examples of this work in California. Mr. Snyder was appointed by the San Francisco Superior Court as Cy Pres Fund Administrator for the Vitamin Anti-Trust Cases Consumer Settlement Fund. This Fund has over $45 million. In addition, he has contracted with the California Attorney General to assist in the distribution of the Salton settlement fund (George Forman Grill) $900,000; the Mylan settlement fund, $1.8 million and the Taxol settlement fund, $500,000. He has assisted plaintiff's counsel in the distribution of other cy pres settlements including the Marianas Fund working with the Tides Foundation. Mr. Snyder teaches a graduate seminar in Health Policy Advocacy at University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. CARL OSHIROCarl Oshiro has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1978 and has served as an Administrative Law Judge with the California Department of Insurance, Legal Advisor to the President of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and Director of Special Projects for the West Coast Regional Office of Consumers Union. He has served as Public Member and Chair of the California Telecommunications Education Trust (TET). Created by the CPUC, the TET made over $16 million in grants to nonprofit organizations to inform California consumers about telecommunications services and policy options. Since 2003, he has been involved in the due diligence review of the over 1,400 Letters of Inquiry and 225 Grant Applications submitted to the Vitamin, Salton, Mylan, and Taxol settlement funds.HOW CYPRESFUNDS.NET WORKS
Mr. Snyder and Mr. Oshiro are very aware of and focused on the court
and counsel's desire to have transparency, objectivity and
accountability in all of the handling of cy pres relief, with
particular attention to addressing the harm to the plaintiffs and close
adherence to cy pres principles for the use of the funds. Together they
provide an evenhanded due diligence process aimed at finding the best
possible projects to recommend to Plaintiff's counsel who then decide
which grants to fund or recommend to the court for funding.
They start with the settlement agreement and/or court order for direction in the use of the funds. Where needed and appropriate they interview experts in the field, including grant makers, subject matter specialists and academics in order to help determine the most effective criteria for the use of the funds. Where feasible they obtain demographic or other data identifying characteristics of the members of the injured class. After plaintiff's counsel approve the criteria they are incorporated into a Notice of Fund Availability which is approved by Plaintiff's counsel. Mr Snyder and Mr. Oshiro then implement the broadest possible publication and targeted outreach to assure that all interested and eligible organizations and agencies are aware of the potential for receiving funding and have an equal opportunity to compete for funds. They have established a web site, www.cypresfunds.net, to aid in spreading notice of the availability of funds and to facilitate applications for the funds. With cooperation from Foundations and Government Agencies, Notice of Fund Availability is posted on many websites that likely applicants review regularly. These Notices are linked to www.cypresfunds.net. Provided below are examples of the links we include to facilitate application for grant funds: "For further information about the Vitamin Cases Consumer Settlement Fund and Instructions on how to submit a Letter of Inquiry, click on the links below to view the Notice of Funds Availability and Grants Process in either Adobe PDF or Word format.
Notice of Funds Availability and Grants Process (Adobe PDF format)
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