EBV program receives grant from New York Bar Foundation

Part of investment in technology sector and entrepreneurship among disabled military veterans

The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program, based at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, is the beneficiary of a grant—to be shared with the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition (CTIC)—from the New York Bar Foundation as part of the distribution of residual class action settlement funds of approximately $850,000. As part of this distribution, the EBV will receive $250,000.   

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska has approved a plan submitted by Class Counsel and The New York Bar Foundation for a cy pres distribution of residual class action settlement funds in City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp. The funds are being distributed to The New York Bar Foundation under the cy pres doctrine, which is providing funding through its grant-making program for projects conducted by the EBV and CTIC. 

“The New York Bar Foundation is very pleased to receive the cy pres fund distribution from this important antitrust law class action. The programs to be awarded grants already have a reputation for excellence and involve accomplished faculty and scholars. We are proud to have our foundation collaborating with Syracuse University to benefit our disabled military veterans and their families, and Penn Law to provide financial support for its research into technology and innovation policy,” says New York Bar Foundation President M. Catherine Richardson, of Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC, Syracuse. 

The EBV program offers cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines disabled as a result of their service supporting operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The program was founded at SU in 2007, and over the past four years has expanded to a network of world-class business schools that includes the UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Florida State University’s College of Business, the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University, the Krannert School at Purdue University, the College of Business at the University of Connecticut and the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University. More than 300 wounded warriors have graduated from the program since its inception, and the training continues to be offered without any cost to participants. 

The Grinnell litigation involved several national class actions consolidated in the Southern District of New York that alleged defendant companies violated the Sherman Act for purported price fixing among four service providers in the market for central station alarm services. The defendant companies utilized telephone voice technology to monitor burglar, fire and residential alarm systems from a remote central location. The cases were settled for $10 million in 1971. The protective services industry, through its rudimentary use of telephone technology, became a precursor of the information services business, which includes information technology such as the Internet. 

The remaining funds are being used to further the goal of increasing public understanding of the U.S. antitrust laws and the jurisprudence and significance of the Grinnell case in U.S. antitrust jurisprudence, particularly as applied to the information services industry, which the protective services industry involved in Grinnell helped spawn. The projects also foster the types of entrepreneurship promoted by U.S. antitrust laws and are conducted to benefit important groups of worthy individuals. 

Founded in 1950, The New York Bar Foundation provides financial support, through its grant making program, for law-related charitable and educational programs that increase public understanding of the law; improve the justice system and the law; facilitate the delivery of legal services; and enhance professional competence and ethics. 

EBV media queries can be directed to Ray Toenniessen at the Whitman School, at (315) 443-0256 or rmtoenni@syr.edu.