Alan Hidalgo-Lobo is not your typical law student. His path to law school started at a young age, prompted by a heartbreaking tragedy.
Alan was born in California to Honduran parents. He had a happy life and joyful family consisting of his father, mother, and three siblings. Everything changed one fateful day, when his father was murdered.
His family sought justice, believing the killers to be extended family members who were involved in organized crime and drug trafficking. However, the case grew cold, and his father’s killers were never brought to justice.
Many would be bitter towards the justice system if this were their story. Given a tragedy of this magnitude, it would be understandable to fixate on the flaws of a noble yet imperfect system. Some would even be tempted to completely lose hope in the concept of earthly justice.
Not so with Alan. “Justice may have been denied for my family,” Alan says, “But my hope is that I can use my law degree to seek justice for other families. I’m at High Point Law to gain the critical skills necessary to ethically fight for victims as a prosecutor. And, with God’s help, I will do just that.”
Even now, Alan is learning the fundamentals of criminal law in his first-year courses. His teachers include a former Supreme Court Justice and criminal defense attorney, Robert Edmunds, as well as a career prosecutor, Jennifer Martin. In his professional pathways course taught by the founding dean, former Chief Justice Mark Martin, Alan received real-world advice and wisdom from multiple prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys. As a second-year student at High Point Law, Alan will learn process and procedure in the criminal justice system. He will also be given the opportunity to try a case in his second-year trial advocacy practicum. Day by day at High Point Law, Alan will be one step closer to taking the bar, one step closer to obtaining a law license, and one step closer to his dream of serving as a prosecutor.
As soon as this summer, Alan will be reaching another milestone. He has secured a legal externship with the Gaston County District Attorney’s office, where he will be assisting prosecutors as they work to administer the criminal justice system in that important region of North Carolina.
When asked about Alan’s story, former Chief Justice Mark Martin—High Point Law’s Founding Dean and Professor of Law—shared:
Alan has a great attitude, a serving heart, and a bundle of positive energy. We will strongly support him as he pursues his legal studies and aspires to be a lawyer of excellence and integrity.