Current Position & Background
Mr Girs is a courtroom-tested International Lawyer, Mediator and Mediation Advocate. His background spans civil, commercial, criminal, administrative and constitutional matters, as well as human rights.
- The first Russian-speaking practitioner dual-certified by IMI as Mediator and Mediation Advocate, with MCPC mediation training under the aegis of the Supreme Court of India: a clear edge in international disputes with a Russian or Indian element.
Mr Girs also holds SSI Divemaster and PADI Instructor ratings. The diving parallel is relevant: managing human factors and the elements in high-risk underwater conditions demands the same situational awareness, calibrated action and composure under pressure that effective mediation requires. One sharpens the other.
Practice Areas
Mr Girs primarily mediates civil and commercial disputes, contractual and corporate at the core, and is just as comfortable with workplace and employment matters, including the tangle of non-disparagement, non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. Breaches of privacy and safety, and personal injury, are part of the practice too.
The sectors he knows from the inside run an unusually wide range, from arts, diving and iGaming to real estate, construction, manufacturing, technology and hospitality. That range is the point: real disputes rarely come pre-sorted into neat categories, and neither does his multidisciplinary practice.
Mediation Style
Mixed Mediation Arts (MMA) is Mr Girs’ freestyle in mediation. Every school has moves worth taking; none deserves a monopoly. He mixes facilitative, evaluative and transformative freely, separately or in combination, drawing on whatever works to get the parties where they want to land. Needs-based by principle, he keeps the process serving the parties, with settlement always in sight. And the nod to the martial arts is deliberate: a mixed fighter borrows whatever ends the fight. Mediation is the same art pointed the other way, two decades of courtroom combat now put to ending disputes rather than caging them in the courts.
Mediation Experience
Mr Girs entered international mediation in 2021, building on more than two decades in law and dispute resolution. In law since 2003, he has worked at all levels, up to the apex courts and beyond: the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Alongside the courtroom record sit corporate work and deal-making: matters handled totalling some $5 billion across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the US and offshore. He is equally at home in complex cross-border cases, media strategy and politically charged situations.
Mediation Education
Mr Girs’ professional development spans foundational training across Europe, Asia, and the US. The result is a practice that travels well across borders, cultures, and legal systems.
SELECTED CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
- Mediation Advocacy Skills Workshops
Sage Mediation Institute for Leadership Education (SMILE) / Singapore, 2025 - Online Dispute Resolution and Artificial Intelligence
ADR ODR International / Britain, 2025 - MCPC Training under the aegis of the Supreme Court of India
Main Mediation Centre of Bombay High Court & MNLU-Mumbai / India, 2024 - Mediator Skills Training International Accreditation (IAP)
Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) / Britain, 2024 - WIPO Workshop & Advanced Course on Arbitration and Mediation
World Intellectual Property Organization / Switzerland, 2023 - Workshop on Mediation Advocacy for Lawyers and Legal Academics
National Law School of India University, FSRI & CAMP / India, 2023 - India International Mediation
Edwards Mediation Academy & CAMP / US-India, 2023 - Professional Requalification Diploma in Mediation *
National University of Modern Technologies / Russia, 2022 - Mediation Theory and Practice Course
Centre for Mediation and Negotiation / Belarus, 2022 - Interpersonal Mediation
UK Mediation, cross-certified by Ofqual regulated AIM / Britain, 2021
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND:
- Master of International and European Law (LL.M.) **
Riga Graduate School of Law / Latvia, 2003 – 2005 - Qualifying Law Degree – Jurist **
Baltic International Academy / Latvia, 1999 – 2003
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* Registered with Russia’s Federal Register of Educational Documents: a legal precondition for licensed mediation practice in Russia, making the mediated settlement agreements endorsed directly enforceable through the Federal Bailiff Service.
** Nostrified in Russia, confirming a foreign diploma’s equivalence to national standards and enabling practice in the jurisdiction.
Mediation Publications
- Skin in the Game: Dissenting Opinion in Defence of the Mediator’s Success Fee / A contribution to the public consultation on the draft IMI Code of Conduct for Mediators, challenging its flat ban on outcome-related mediator fees. Drawing on the law and practice of a dozen jurisdictions, the article argues that the ban rests on no demonstrated harm, mistakes a regulatory patchwork for a global consensus, and overrides party self-determination.
Affiliations
For matters involving an Indian element: Of Counsel and Mediation Advocate affiliated since 2025 with Frontline Law Partners, a Bengaluru-based law firm (www.frontlinelaw.in).
Code of Conduct
Complaint Process
IMI Credentials
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Public credential
Certified Mediator
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Public credential
Certified Mediation Advocate
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