Fran Wikstrom Grateful for WSU Education

         
Fran Wikstrom, the recently elected president of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), attended a very small high school. He feels fortunate to have attended Weber State, where he gained the self-confidence needed to succeed at Yale Law School and in his career today. “I am proud to be a Wildcat,” he said.

ACTL is an invitation-only association of exceptional trial lawyers. The organization is focused on maintaining and improving the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice, and the ethics of the profession. Membership is limited to the top 1 percent of the profession, and all United States Supreme Court justices are honorary fellows.
           
In 1971, Wikstrom served as Weber State College’s student body president and graduated with a major in history and a minor in political science. Since then, he has served as an assistant U.S. attorney and as a U.S. attorney for the District of Utah. Since 1982, he has worked for Parsons Behle & Latimer, a regional law firm. He specializes in cases involving patent infringement, trade secrets, contracts, real property, employment discrimination and environmental regulation.

Weber State helped Wikstrom achieve his goals by providing him with an affordable education that gave him the tools and confidence he needed to be successful at Yale. “It was great to be able to take classes from enthusiastic and committed full professors instead of graduate students and to be in classes of manageable size,” he said.