Education

I hold a J.D. and LL.M. in Regulatory Law from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (with Maximum Distinction). Additionally, I obtained an LL.M. in Environmental and Energy Law (with Distinction) from Georgetown University as a UNEP-Georgetown Global Environment and Sustainability Fellow in 2021. More recently, I earned an S.J.D. (Law PhD) from Georgetown University in 2024.

My areas of practice and research are international, environmental, energy, natural resources, and human rights law. Besides the Chilean and U.S. domestic perspective, I’m also experienced in comparative and international frameworks, especially from a Global South perspective.

Professional Experience

I practiced with two leading Chilean law firms specialized on environmental law, where I litigated before environmental courts, higher courts, and advised many environmental impact assessment procedures. After that I joined the Environmental Legislation and Regulation Department of the Chilean Ministry of the Environment, where I worked in regulations to protect the water quality of lakes and rivers, as well as reviewing the climate change framework law draft, among many other issues.

More recently, I worked as a visiting attorney at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in Washington D.C. under the Research & Policy team led by Sandra Nichols Tiam. At ELI I improved my knowledge and understanding of legal and policy research mechanisms to address sustainable development challenges in developing countries. I conducted research on critical minerals and illegal mining in developing countries in Latin America, such as Peru and Colombia.

I also worked as a Fellow at the Frontiers in Environmental Law Unit (FELU) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, for the second half of 2023. Here I researched on environmental justice and just transition issues from the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, geoengineering, and the advancement of the environmental rule of law, among other issues of international relevance such as many COPs and MOPs of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) such as the Montreal Protocol.

I’m currently working as a Law Fellow at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) in Washington D.C. Here I am focused primarily on just transition and strategic climate litigation efforts worldwide, including the advisory opinion before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights, among other cases within the Latin American region and beyond.

Teaching

I have taught Environmental Law and Natural Resources courses at the Law School of Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Pregrad and Graduate), and at the Economics and Business School of Diego Portales University (Graduate).

At Georgetown Law, I worked as Teaching Assistant at multiple courses, including the Environmental Law Scholarship Workshop. I also worked as a Professor at the Legal English Program for graduate students at Georgetown, with Professor Michelle Ueland. We co-taught the Advanced Legal Scholarly Writing and Oral Communication in Law classes. I have vast knowledge and experience on Legal Research and Writing.

My Research

Law review scholarship includes over fifteen articles in English and Spanish, in three countries, in the Energy Law Journal, Environmental Law Reporter, McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law, The George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law, Revista de Derecho (Coquimbo), Revista de Derecho Ambiental (UChile), among others.

I also published a book on the Chilean Environmental Impact Assessment System, prologued by Professor Jorge Bermúdez Soto, Former General Comptroller of the Republic of Chile.

My work has already been cited in Chile by the Environmental Courts, the Supreme Court, and Congress bills.

I’m currently focused on complex international, environmental, energy, and regulatory crossovers during rule-making procedures, policy-making, and climate litigation. I’m particularly interested in the role of regulations within the right to a healthy environment, stakeholder engagement, environmental impact assessment, energy projects, and how regulatory structures work (or not) in the face of emerging challenges such as the call for a just transition and climate change governance.

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