Lopez Thompson was born in North Philadelphia in 1959. He is one of five children raised by a single mom. As a child he sought to be independent by working on Saturdays with a neighbor at his shoe repair shop, and later serving newspapers as well as other after school jobs. At age 15 Lopez became involved with two organizations that would forever shape his life, The Ebonite Academy of Cadets under the leadership of Roy E. Collins, it’s founder and The Discovery Leadership Institute funded by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Both organizations were committed to instilling leadership qualities in inner-city youths who were living in gang torn areas of the City. In 1976 Lopez received a scholarship to attend the North Carolina Outward Bound School which is a survival school design to instill endurance, reliance upon others and leadership skills.

 

Growing up in West Philadelphia, many of Lopez’s male friends and relatives became victims of the drug plague of the 1970s. Lopez vowed to his Mother not to become a casualty.

 

Lopez attended and graduated from the John Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia in 1977 and later attended Temple University becoming the first of his extended family to graduate from a four-year institution of higher learning.

 

Lopez worked his way through Temple cleaning carpets, driving taxicabs, and operating a hotdog cart outside of Temple as a vendor.

 

After graduating from Temple University in 1984, Lopez Thompson, now 25 founded a Title Insurance agency in his West Philadelphia neighborhood being one of the first Afro-American title agents in the Country. Handling over a million dollars a month in real estate transaction, Lopez’s business success obtained him a mention in the 1989 June edition of Black Enterprise.

 

As a community business leader Lopez also served on the boards of the Rafters Charities Incorporated, the West Philadelphia NAACP, the West Philadelphia Housing Association, and the Associated Real Estate Brokers of Philadelphia.

 

With the desire to fulfill his childhood dream, in 1989 Lopez attended and  graduated from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law located in Houston Texas. After passing the Pennsylvania State Bar in 1994, Lopez returned back to Philadelphia and began his law practice as a solo practitioner in the same west Philadelphia  office where he previously operated his Title Insurance agency and has provided affordable legal services to the community for the last 20 years

As well as maintain a center city practice.

 

As a solo practitioner, Lopez Thompson has handled Municipal Court matters, such as landlord-tenant representing both landlords and tenants; small claims representing consumers as well as business owners; corporations  as well as representing defendants during preliminary hearings and trials on the criminal side.

 

Lopez Thompson has also handled family law matters including domestic violence, support, custody, guardianship as well as juvenile delinquency matters.

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As a general practitioner Lopez Thompson also has handled personal injury claims, police misconduct, civil rights, real estate matters including foreclosure defense, redeeming properties lost at Sheriff’s tax sales and has helped property owners retrieve fraudulently conveyed properties.

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Lopez Thompson’s broad legal experience gives him the unique qualification to be a competent judge in the Philadelphia court system.

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“I believe that as a result  of my life’s experiences, legal experience and ability to work with people  in the community that I am qualified to be a judge in the Philadelphia Court System. “

 

Lopez Thompson is licensed to practice law in the Municipal Court of Philadelphia, the State trial Courts of Pennsylvania, the Orphans Court of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, the Federal District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Federal District Court of the Southern District of Texas, and the Bankruptcy Court of Pennsylvania.