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After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School in 1989, Andrew Griffin became a research associate in Soviet and East Bloc Law at Vanderbilt. In 1991, Andrew began his career in the oil & gas industry, working for major US oil companies in large-scale petroleum-production, crude oil sales, storage, transportation and marketing, and coalbed methane projects in Russia and Poland. He was a member of the negotiating group that created the first US-Russia oil-production joint venture in Arkhangelsk, Ukhta and Naryan Mar, Russia. Later Andrew was an oil trader (the company specifically wanted a US Russian-speaking lawyer for this position) for a JV based in West Siberia, Houston, and Moscow. Andrew was charged with insuring that the JV did not violate the FCPA in the hazardous business environment of Russia in the mid-90s. Andrew also has experience as in—house counsel for a Houston-based oil company working in the areas of refining and petroleum products, marine law, marketing, sales, storage and transportation both in Houston and several countries in Central and South America, including the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Venezuela. In 2001, Andrew joined a US law firm and worked at their office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, advising clients in oil & gas JVs, government relations (Andrew served in several committees of the Kazakh parliament advising on draft legislation) and construction arbitration. Since 2006, Andrew has been in Tokyo where he has been international in-house counsel for a top Japanese construction company, chief compliance officer for a major Japanese oil & gas offshore production company and law firm of counsel. Andrew has near-native proficiency in Russian and Polish, is fluent in Spanish and has proficiency to perform legal work in Japanese, Portuguese and Ukrainian.

Education:

  • 1980  BA in Russian and Polish, University of Tennessee
  • 1986  MA and PhD Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Ohio State University
  • 1989  JD, Vanderbilt Law School 

Work History:

  • 1989-1990  Research Associate at Vanderbilt Law School in USSR and East Block Law
  • 1991-2001  In-house counsel at Conoco Overseas Oil Company, Occidental Petroleum and The Coastal Corporation
  • 2001-2005  Senior Associate and Counsel at Denton Wilde and Coudert Brothers in Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 2006-2007  Senior Associate at DLA Piper, Tokyo
  • 2008-2012  Senior Legal Counsel at Taisei Construction Company, Tokyo
  • 2013-2015  Chief Compliance Officer MODEC, Tokyo
  • 2015-2018  General Counsel for SIFRO Limited, AI Start-Up Company, Shanghai and Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 2017-present Adjunct Instructor APU Ritsumeikan University
  • 2018-2022  Foreign Registered Lawyer at Uryu & Itoga, Tokyo
  • 2022-present Foreign Registered Lawyer at GI&T Law Office

Languages:

  • English, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Ukrainian