Chilean lawyers are bracing for potential disruptions to the way business is conducted in their country, as well as intense debates, after a leftist former student protest leader won the presidency on promises to redirect the economy. Though small by population, (Chile has roughly 19 million inhabitants), the South American country has long welcomed foreign investment and has been a hotbed of cross-border corporate work for global lawyers. The Constitution is up for a rewrite, while the pension system could be overhauled.

Law.com International spoke with Alfredo Moreno, a Chile-based corporate partner at Spain’s ECIJA, about the firm’s expectations for legal work after president-elect Gabriel Boric takes office in March. ECIJA employs more than a dozen lawyers, including four partners, in Chile, where the Spanish firm absorbed a well-established law firm called Estudio Jurídico Otero in 2019.