A Different Kind of Lawyer: Jorge Hagedorn, Class of 2025 | News | The Law School

A smiling man in a blue and white striped shirt and gray pants stands with his arms crossed under a stone archway on the Notre Dame campus.

At just six years old, Jorge Hagedorn understood danger in a way most children never do. Living in Israel while his father—a Chilean marine—patrolled the Lebanon-Israel border, Jorge remembers bomb threat alarms disrupting games of hide-and-seek with his brothers. It was one of many early experiences of social crisis that would plant the seeds for his future as a human rights advocate and legal scholar.

The family moved frequently—Israel, Haiti, then back to Chile—as his father’s military career placed them at the frontlines of conflict and disaster. When a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Talcahuano, Chile, his father, then head of security in the city, stepped in to help lead the community through the crisis.

Those experiences instilled in Jorge a deep commitment to human rights theory and advocacy.

Jorge traces his path to law back to his father. “My father is my hero,” Jorge said. “He’s a very courageous man...he’s really dealt with a lot in life. He’s my inspiration in a lot of senses.”

Jorge attended one of Chile’s top universities, Pontificia Universidad Católica, where he studied law. At first, he considered a career in labor law, but right before graduation, Chile experienced one of its largest social uprisings in modern history, with massive protests and widespread destruction.

Jorge said that it made a huge impact on him and he wanted to be part of the solution— and find out why these things happen.

He went to work at a think tank inspired by the Catholic Doctrine of the Catholic Church and as a legal advisor to the Fundamental Rights Commission in the first constitutional making process his country undertook. He pursued a master’s in political studies while also teaching Constitutional Law and working as a legal advisor in the Chilean Senate.

During this time, Jorge met Notre Dame Associate Law Professor Francisco Urbina.

“He told me about the Notre Dame LL.M. program,” Jorge said. “He said it was a perfect fit for me. So I applied.”

At Notre Dame, Jorge found what he calls his “place in the world.”

Two smiling people sit on a bench in front of the arched entrances of a stone building. The woman wears a blue striped shirt and tan vest, and the man wears a white and blue striped shirt. Green shrubbery is behind the bench. — *Jorge and his wife, Camila*

“I really got interested in human rights—not so much in the practice, even though I was obviously advocating—but more in the theoretical challenges the concept invites us to explore,” he said. “I think human rights are so important as a moral reference in the world, and at least for my capacities, there’s still a lot of work to do on the theoretical questions. That’s where I feel I can contribute. The LL.M. program was a perfect fit—it matches practice with theory.”

He and his wife, Camila, also a lawyer, have embraced Notre Dame’s distinctive Catholic culture.

“We come from a Catholic background, but faith isn’t as public,” he said. “Here, it’s part of academic life, part of the community.”

They have enjoyed participating in all of the Catholic faith traditions and opportunities, and Jorge was happily surprised that professors take time to talk to students about their faith questions.

Jorge has enjoyed courses such as Constitutional Law, Religious Freedom, and Comparative Constitutional Law and has been struck by how much Chile could learn from U.S. legal developments.

“There are so many things we can learn from U.S. jurisprudence,” he said. “I’m trying to understand problems not only from a constitutional perspective, but from a human rights perspective too.”

Family of five wearing Notre Dame apparel sits and stands around a wicker outdoor sofa. A black and white dog looks on. — *Jorge’s family-in-law in Chile, whose visits to campus sparked a lasting love for Notre Dame*

Outside the classroom, Jorge played in an intramural football league and attended Fighting Irish football games with his LL.M. cohort—becoming a die-hard fan along the way.

“When I saw a whole stadium cheer a priest announcing the post game Mass on the jumbotron during halftime, I knew this place was special,” he laughed.

As he prepares for what’s next, Jorge hopes to combine academia and policy to help shape human rights law in Chile and beyond. “I want to be a professor, but I also want to stay involved in public policy.”

His father—still Jorge’s greatest influence—is now pursuing the same master’s in political studies. “I actually inspired him to study again,” Jorge said. “It’s been one of the best things. A lot has changed in the last few years—we’re really happy.”