Ms Lopes studied Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, from 1989 to 1994. She began her career as a judge in 1995 at the School of Judges (Centro de Estudos Judiciários) in Lisbon. In 2009, after several years as a judge in civil and criminal matters, she was appointed to the Commercial Court of Sintra, near Lisbon, which had jurisdiction over insolvency, commercial law and intellectual property law cases. In 2013, she was appointed president of the Court of North Lisbon. In 2021, she was appointed as a judge at the Intellectual Property Court in Lisbon. In 2022, she was appointed to the Lisbon Court of Appeal, serving in the chamber specialising in intellectual property law and competition law. In 2023, she was appointed as a legally qualified judge to the Unified Patent Court, Local Division of Lisbon, which she presides over.