Jaime Carey becomes first Chilean to take office as IBA president

Carey will split two-year term with Italy’s Claudio Visco after IBA approved first joint presidency

Jaime Carey

Jaime Carey, the senior partner of Chile’s largest law firm Carey, has taken office as the International Bar Association’s new president, the first Chilean to hold that position in the IBA’s history.

Carey will be president for a year before passing the reins to joint president Claudio Visco, senior partner at Italian law firm Lipani – the first ever joint IBA presidency. The duo succeed Spain’s Almudena Arpón de Mendívil y Aldama, the IBA’s second female president.

Carey has been a member of the IBA for more than 40 years, holding several senior positions including co-vice president, co-secretary-general and chair of the Legal Practice Division (one of the IBA’s largest membership groupings). He sat on the IBA’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, among many similar appointments.

He has also served as chair of the Latin American Regional Forum and co-chair of the influential Corporate and M&A Section. Additionally, he is a Male Champion for Change Ambassador and has been on the IBA management board since 2011.

Carey said he felt honoured to be elected and will serve IBA members “with full conviction and high resolve”, following in the footsteps of fellow Latin American presidents over the last two decades such as Brazil’s Horacio Bernardes Neto, Venezuala’s Fernando Pelaez-Pier and Argentina’s Emilio Cardenas.

Carey said: “Knowing that I am part of a continuum working to uphold the rule of law fills me with pride. During my tenure, I hope to increase the IBA’s visibility in Africa and Asia and encourage more peers in those regions to get involved in the association’s work.”

He added: “Additionally, because I am from Latin America, I will work to increase the region’s visibility… by creating more opportunities for interaction with colleagues from other jurisdictions.”

Carey stressed “unity, collaboration, diversity and integration” as a key theme for his time in office, which he expressed in his President’s Brochure alongside Visco.

The joint presidency was approved in September 2024 between the two lawyers – both good friends – by which each will serve as IBA president for a year. While it is not unusual for membership of the IBA’s committees or groups to be jointly chaired, this is the first time the IBA’s principal office has been split between two officeholders.

In a joint statement, both men said they would take a collaborative approach, in line with IBA values and objectives, with the shared two-year mandate ensuring “order, coordination and continuity”.

Both men pledged their joint support for common IBA themes, such as defending the independence of the legal profession and judiciary, addressing the implications of, and regulations around, artificial intelligence (AI) and advancing AI projects, much discussed at the IBA’s conference in Mexico City.  

They also promised to promote gender parity and diversity in the legal profession, for which the IBA won the Gender Equality of the Year Award at the 2024 Women and Diversity in Law Awards and a significant organisational commitment during Arpón de Mendívil’s term of office.

The duo also promised to increase accessibility to annual conferences for underrepresented groups in the IBA, such as public and younger lawyers and those from underrepresented jurisdictions like Africa and Latin America.

This year’s annual conference will be held in Toronto, Canada in November. The Global Legal Post has previously produced IBA Daily News, the conference’s daily print publication, at previous IBA events in Miami, Paris and Mexico City.  

With Carey serving as president for 2025, Visco will serve as president-elect and take office in 2026; Carey will then advance to immediate past president a year earlier than usual. Both will attend IBA management board meetings, one as president and the other as an observer.  

The new IBA vice-president will be Jörg Menzer, an M&A partner at Noerr. Meantime, the new IBA secretary-general will be former American Bar Association president Deborah Enix-Ross, a senior adviser at Debevoise & Plimpton. 

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