The International Bar Association’s (IBA’s) biennial Latin America regional forum takes place in Lima, Peru this week. Ahead of the conference, which kicks off tomorrow (19 March), we caught up with new IBA president Jaime Carey – the first lawyer from Chile to hold that position – to talk about the Latin American legal backdrop and the legacy he hopes to leave from his time in office.

What are the biggest challenges impacting the legal landscape in Latin America right now?

One of the major challenges that we have today is legal uncertainty. The lack of legal certainty makes it very difficult to give advice to clients as it becomes like a moving target, with the rules of the game being changed, and sometimes at an administrative level, you have different interpretations from regulatory authorities that sometimes go beyond what the actual law says. So you have to go into very complicated defence mechanisms or go through courts with delays. So I would say today that’s probably the most complicated issue in the industry.

And in general terms, we’re also seeing a lack of expedited access to justice. When that happens, really the judicial system becomes very ineffective if you can’t resolve your problems in a timely manner. We tend to see that most of the courts are jammed and over their capacity to be able to respond efficiently. Finally, we have to be very focused on promoting and enforcing the independence of the judiciary, so it is not affected by governments or politicians, in addition to whatever corruption there may be in the system.

What trends are likely to impact legal activity in the region over the coming year?

With what’s happening in the world today with major superpowers, the polarisation that’s being created, and the trade wars, I think all of this will give a very important space to Latin America as there’s a lot of free hunting ground to develop projects for new investments. Compared to some other developing areas in the world, I think we have a strong base which could bring important investment. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see large infrastructure projects, railroads, roads, tunnels, bridges and all of the energy and mining activity increase. In that sense, I’m very optimistic about the future for Latin America as it may become an important recipient of foreign investment in the coming years.

You became IBA president at the start of this year. What are you hoping to achieve during your term?

First, I want to put Latin America in the spotlight within the IBA. The Latin American lawyers have grown a lot, when we started the Latin American forum in 1990 I remember the first meeting, I think we were seven people. Today it’s become the example of how a regional forum should be run. When we started, we wanted to differentiate ourselves and take away that mañana syndrome where we didn’t do things correctly, so we really put an effort to become very efficient and fulfil all the deadlines.

What I would also like to do [as IBA president] is continue to strengthen and promote the respect of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. To this effect, the IBA had some rule of law forum videos, which we did a few years ago. They were short, five-minute videos that would show different situations where the rule of law would be affected. So we’re working with some bar associations to revamp these and come up with a product that we want to take to schools so we can teach younger children – maybe 13, 14, 15 year olds – about what are the responsibilities and the duties of society and individuals and the importance of the rule of law. So it’s about starting to put in that concept of the rule of law at a young age with something interactive and interesting.

I also want to reach out more to Africa and Asia, I think they have not received the attention over the years that we would like, and now with the possibility of having artificial intelligence in translations, it will be easier to have more seminars and conferences, because the language would not be a barrier.

And finally, AI is something that is a big issue on our list. I think the world is going to change dramatically, and we’re now working with different committees and constituencies within the IBA to work on a project on how AI is affecting the profession, not only from a technical perspective, but also from an ethical perspective.

The title of the Lima conference is ‘The Road to 2030 in Latin America’. What is your vision for the region in five years?

As I said, I’m optimistic. I think we’re moving in the right direction. I think we will start having growth, partly for the reason I mentioned before. So I think there will be more investment coming as Latin America could be fertile ground for the world powers to invest.

What sessions are you most looking forward to at the Lima conference?

They’re all very interesting. I’m personally very interested in the ‘Regulatory change amid perennial political uncertainty’ session. The cyber security and AI sessions; I think that’s always a good topic. There is a law firm management session, which is based on the purpose of law firms and how the new generations are looking at the legal profession. The future of M&A is interesting. And finally, the general counsel’s round table, which gives you a bit of an insight into how the legal corporate world is looking at the profession.

The Global Legal Post will be reporting from The Road to 2030 in Latin America conference this week. Click here for further coverage.

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