Wimsatt earns law school’s Lisa Award

Ted Wimsatt is the recipient of the 2008 Steven G. Lisa Award for his academic excellence and significant contributions to the Center for the Study of Law, Science & Technology at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

The $1,000 award, which is given by Lisa, a patent lawyer and alumnus of the College of Law, recognizes an outstanding third-year law student with intellectual property interests.

Wimsatt graduated this week at the top of his class and earned a law, science and technology certificate with a specialization in intellectual property.

During law school, he was a summer associate at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain and at Lewis and Roca LLP, and he also was executive editor of Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology.

Wimsatt, a former engineer at Motorola who has a computer engineering degree from Penn State, said he is honored to receive the award.

“I’m really surprised because there were a lot of great 3Ls involved with the center this year – and they are as, or more, deserving,” he says.

Gary Marchant, the center’s executive director, called Wimsatt a model student who “will surely also be a superb attorney.

“Ted is consistently brilliant, hard-working, fully engaged, responsible and reliable,” Marchant says. “On top of all that, he is a nice guy.”

Wimsatt plans to serve as a clerk for the Arizona Supreme Court’s vice chief justice, Rebecca White Berch, next year. He has lined up a job at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain after that.