Betül Serbest ’19 Honored with American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation Past President's Award

Betül Serbest ’19 recently received the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation's Past President's Award at the American Intellectual Property Law Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The award is given to a law student who best exemplifies excellence in the field of intellectual property law.

Serbest, who was class valedictorian when she graduated from Chicago-Kent with her J.D. last May, is now an associate with Reed Smith LLP. During law school, she made the dean’s list every semester, won CALI Awards for the highest grade in several of her courses, and was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. Serbest was also a member of the Chicago-Kent Law Review and served as vice president of the Intellectual Property Law Society.

In addition to her academic achievements, Serbest worked as an assistant to Mary Anne Smith, director of the Chicago-Kent Patent Hub, to help low-income inventors in Illinois receive pro bono assistance from lawyers to seek patents for their inventions. She also volunteered with the Self-Help Web Center at the Daley Center and worked as a Public Interest Law Initiative fellow in the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian.

Serbest, who was born in Turkey and emigrated to the United States with her family at a young age, is fluent in Turkish and volunteers as an interpreter for asylum seekers in their credible-fear interviews.