Jaime Carey Makes History as First Chilean President of the IBA.
Jaime Carey, who recently made history as the first Chilean president of the International Bar Association, informed Latin Lawyer of his intentions to leverage his new role to highlight regions within the IBA that lack representation, enhance connections with Latin America, and advance efforts toward achieving gender equality in the legal profession. Carey officially took office on January 1. He succeeded Almudena Arpón de Mendívil Aldama, a senior partner at Gomez-Acebo & Pombo in Spain, who had served in this capacity since 2023. Carey says the appointment to the IBA’s presidency is an apt culmination of his 41 years at the institution and a career "peak.”
“Taking on this leading role at the IBA feels like an accomplishment that I have been working towards for a long time. I look forward to getting more involved with all the different divisions of the IBA and encouraging the spirit of unity and cohesion across the organisation.”
As the president of the IBA, Carey intends to utilize his extensive connections and esteemed reputation as a lawyer within the Latin American legal community to engage a greater number of lawyers from the region in IBA activities and events, while enhancing visibility. He emphasizes the importance of this initiative, particularly as Latin America is currently experiencing "a special moment," due to its potential as a key investment hub for major global economies such as China and the United States. One of Carey’s goals in his new position will be to highlight both the opportunities and the ongoing challenges faced by the region. In addition to increasing attention on Latin America, Carey also seeks to bring focus to regions that are less frequently represented within the IBA.
"We want to focus specifically on Asia and Africa, where the IBA has been lacking the presence it would like."
Carey articulates his vision for enhancing engagement in these regions by organizing additional conferences and events, while also strengthening partnerships and collaborations with local bar associations, law societies, firms, and legal practitioners. His extensive experience within the International Bar Association (IBA) and his comprehensive understanding of the organization uniquely position him for this initiative. Over the past four decades as a member of the IBA, Carey has occupied various leadership roles, including his tenure on the management board since 2011, and his previous leadership of the corporate law committee, the Latin American Regional Forum, and the Legal Practice Division.
In 2021, he made history as the IBA’s first Chilean co-secretary general, and he served as co-vice president from 2023 to 2024. With a strong awareness of emerging market trends, Carey places significant emphasis on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) during his leadership. He intends to harness AI resources to improve the accessibility of IBA events, employing tools such as simultaneous translation to eliminate language barriers and enhance participation from nations where English is not the primary language. This initiative aligns with the IBA's broader commitment to advancing AI initiatives. In partnership with the Centre for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), the IBA offers essential insights into the governance and ethical application of AI technologies within the legal field. Carey is dedicated to furthering this agenda, expressing his desire to incorporate AI into the IBA’s daily functions and to facilitate access to information from its extensive archives:
“We aim to leverage AI to create an intelligent, user-friendly database that will make the information in the IBA archives more accessible,” Carey elaborates that this approach will enable numerous ongoing projects initiated by various IBA committees and task forces to act as a beneficial foundation for new endeavors, thereby negating the necessity to commence from the beginning or to reinvent established concepts.
Among his primary objectives, Carey intends to prioritize the IBA's diversity initiatives, with a particular emphasis on fostering female leadership and enhancing the representation of neurodivergent lawyers and individuals. Having served on the IBA’s Diversity and Inclusion Council for several years, he is dedicated to advancing initiatives such as the IBA’s 50:50 by 2030, which seeks to identify the root causes of gender disparity within the legal profession, evaluate equality initiatives, and develop a comprehensive strategy for achieving gender equality at all levels. In line with the IBA's diversity efforts, Carey also aims to improve gender balance among IBA members, currently comprising 36% women.
Reflecting on this objective, Carey recognizes that while there remains “still work to be done,” the progress thus far has been encouraging. He points to statistics from the IBA’s latest annual conference in Mexico City, where the representation of female officers and speakers reached 46% and 45%, respectively. Despite the challenges that lie ahead, Carey expresses gratitude for the knowledge that he will not be undertaking this new chapter in isolation.
“The IBA has a team of dedicated people who have a lot of experience and do a fantastic job that makes our life easier. I feel very much supported by them,” he says. Carey underscores the importance of this collaborative endeavor in reinforcing the IBA's dedication to maintaining the rule of law and safeguarding the autonomy of both the legal profession and the judiciary.
“If we all contribute our little grain of sand, I think we can make the world a much better place […] I’m looking forward to being president and I hope I can leave a footprint and give more visibility to Latin America and other regions in these times,” concludes Carey.
In addition to his position as President of the International Bar Association (IBA), continues to serve as a senior partner and chairman at Carey, which is recognized as the largest law firm in Chile. He previously held the leadership role at the firm from 2000 until August 2024, when he transitioned the leadership to M&A partner Pablo Iacobelli earlier this year.
Concurrently, he succeeded his brother Jorge Carey as the chairman of the firm. He is notable for being the first Chilean attorney to assume the presidency of the IBA and the fourth practitioner from Latin America to do so.
The most recent Latin American president prior to him was Horacio Bernardes Neto, who was also the first Brazilian to hold this position. Before Bernardes Neto, Fernando Peláez-Pier from Venezuela's Hoet Peláez Castillo & Duque served as president from 2009 to 2010, following Argentine lawyer Emilio Cárdenas, who presided over the organization during the 2003-2004 term. The IBA comprises 80,000 member lawyers and more than 190 bar associations across over 170 countries.
