José Ignacio Vial was appointed Undersecretary of the Environment by President-elect José Antonio Kast. Until his appointment, José Ignacio had been working as a senior associate at Barros Silva Varela & Vigil in the firm’s Public and Environmental Law team since 2023.

José Ignacio holds a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, a diploma in Natural Resources, with a specialisation in Energy, from the same university, and a Master’s degree in Environmental and Sustainability Law from the University of Alicante, Spain.

He has also been recognised as a Rising Star by The Legal 500 in the Environmental area for the last two years and has an outstanding track record in both the public and private sectors, where he has held positions as Chief of Staff of the Undersecretary of the Environment, the Litigation and Invalidations Department of the SEA, and as an associate at CorreaGubbins and, most recently, at Barros Silva Varela & Vigil.

Felipe Riesco, partner of BSVV and former Undersecretary of the Environment (2018 and 2020), had José Ignacio Vial as chief of staff and celebrates the news: “I think it is a great appointment. Undersecretary Vial has all the professional and human qualities to be a great Undersecretary. He is a great lawyer, specialized in environmental law. He has technical rigor, critical and analytical thinking, a deep and thorough knowledge of environmental institutions, environmental management instruments, and courts; he has theoretical and practical experience. He is very hardworking and meticulous.”[i]

For her part, Claudia Ferreiro, also a partner at BSVV and Head of the firm’s environmental team, was the one who trained José Ignacio as an environmental lawyer in his beginnings at the then CorreaGubbins law firm. “José Ignacio is a person who greatly values nature as a legal asset to be protected, with the understanding that we live in a developing country, where economic growth is important (…) and he believes very much that environmental protection is possible for economic growth. In other words, they are not two incompatible goods, but it is possible to grow and protect the environment at the same time.”[ii]

A similar opinion is held by lawyer Jorge Femenías, who is a PhD. In Law and professor of Administrative Law and Environmental Law, at Universidad Católica. He says that he has known José Ignacio Vial for more than ten years: “Some of us worked together in a law office and then he was my assistant in the Environmental Damage Liability course that I teach at Universidad Católica for Master’s students, and also an assistant in some undergraduate courses that I taught. He is a professional who has been trained in Environmental Law, who has gone through the government and has worked in the State, in the Superintendence of the Environment, and in the Ministry, he knows it very well. In addition, he did his postgraduate studies in Spain in environmental matters and therefore I think it is a fantastic appointment, the undersecretaries in general must have highly specialized technicians and, from the technical perspective, he is a brand good new Undersecretary,” adds the UC professor[iii].

In the same vein, the lawyer Cristian Stewart, Master in Public Administration with a specialization in economic policy and MSc. in Social Sciences at The London School of Economics, expresses himself on the appointment of José Ignacio Vial. “It is great news that someone who knows the issues and challenges related to the Environment from many different sides is Undersecretary of the matter. He is someone who, given his overall vision, knows how to adapt to different interlocutors, which facilitates the processing of projects and regulations in a complex matter,” adds Stewart, executive director of IdeaPaís[iv].

As a firm, we are certain that he will contribute significantly to the sustainable development of the country, and on behalf of the entire BSVV team, we wish him every success in this new challenge.

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[i] Taken from País Circular, February 9, 2026. https://www.paiscircular.cl/medio-ambiente/futuro-subsecretario-del-medio-ambiente-jose-ignacio-vial-un-apasionado-por-la-naturaleza-segun-quienes-lo-conocen/

[ii] Taken from País Circular, February 9, 2026. https://www.paiscircular.cl/medio-ambiente/futuro-subsecretario-del-medio-ambiente-jose-ignacio-vial-un-apasionado-por-la-naturaleza-segun-quienes-lo-conocen/

[iii] Taken from País Circular, February 9, 2026. https://www.paiscircular.cl/medio-ambiente/futuro-subsecretario-del-medio-ambiente-jose-ignacio-vial-un-apasionado-por-la-naturaleza-segun-quienes-lo-conocen/

[iv] Taken from País Circular, February 9, 2026. https://www.paiscircular.cl/medio-ambiente/futuro-subsecretario-del-medio-ambiente-jose-ignacio-vial-un-apasionado-por-la-naturaleza-segun-quienes-lo-conocen/