Agris Bitāns

Managing Partner

Head of Litigation and Dispute resolution practice group

Languages

Latvian, English and Russian

Practice areas

• Commercial litigation
• Competition, EU and Trade
• Education
• Employment law
• Fraud and financial crime
• Insurance and reinsurance
• Intellectual property
• Litigation and dispute management
• Reputation management

Practice notes

Managing Partner Agris heads the Eversheds Bitāns Litigation and Dispute resolution practice group.  With more than 20 years of legal experience, Agris is a widely recognised and acclaimed litigator in Latvia.  His main focus on is civil and commercial litigation, civil liability including liability for non-pecuniary loss, intellectual property, contract disputes, criminal litigation, mainly in relation to white-collar crime and fraud.  Agris’s practice areas also include e-commerce, patent rights, mass media, advertising and PPP projects.

Agris has successfully represented clients in several cases which later became case law.  He is a pioneer in various areas of intellectual property related litigation for local and international clients, including pharmaceutical companies.  His experience also includes multimillion and complex cross-border cases

Agris is recommended as a litigation lawyer by Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

Agris is a member of the Latvian Bar Association and International Bar Association.  He is also a member of AIPPI and has served as the President of the Latvian AIPPI group since 2005.

In addition to his work at the law firm, Agris is a lector at the University of Latvia in the Faculty of Law.

He also serves as an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He is the author of the treatise “Torts and Contractual Liability” (published in “Civil Liability and Its Forms”) and has co-authored commentaries to the Latvian Civil Code and several other legal articles, including commentaries on the Constitution of Latvia.  He regularly contributes to reports on tort law developments in Latvia for the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law in Vienna.

Independent comments

Chambers Global, 2014: Agris Bitāns is a firm favourite with clients, who say he “always gets personally involved in our matters.  He has a great attitude and a no-nonsense approach.  He is one of the best litigators in Latvia.”

Chambers Global, 2013: Leading litigator and managing partner Agris Bitāns “does substantial groundwork to put together all the necessary arguments and is incredibly impressive in court,” according to a source.  He has over 20 years’ experience in all manner of disputes, ranging from healthcare and banking to IP and telecoms.

Recent experience

• Representing a large bankrupt bank and its creditors in a claim brought against the former auditor of the bank: one of the “Big Four” audit firms.  This is the first large-scale claim brought against one of the “Big Four” audit firms in a Latvian court concerning auditors’ liability for professional negligence.
• Representing the legal interests of a former credit institution with regard to a multimillion claim against its former management board members (who also had been two major shareholders in the bank before it was nationalised) for alleged fraud and misappropriation of funds.
• Representing two clients: Reverta (former Parex Bank) and its majority shareholder State JSC Privatizacijas Agentura (Privatisation Agency) regarding breach of representations and warranties relating to the financial state of the bank at the time of its buy-out.  The claim amounted to €140 million and is the biggest to have been brought against private individuals in Latvian case law history.
• Representing the largest strategic investor in Latvia in the oil transit area in a USD 90 million litigation case.  The case relates to liability of board members and council and was initiated by minority stakeholders.
• Representing a client in a claim by Belorussian company Druzba who was requested to declare its ownership rights to technological oil located in a pipeline, amounting to 150,000 tonnes and valued in excess of USD 100 million.
• Representing Seesam Insurance and three other well-known international reinsurers in a matter brought by the owner of a Riga shopping centre who is demanding payment of an insurance indemnity after a fire in the shopping centre in the amount of €630,000.
• Representing the interests of Salaspils Municipality – one of the major cities in Latvia – in civil litigation against three construction companies for recovery of contractual penalty amounting to €1.7 million for failure to finish the construction works within the agreed term and for executing most of the construction works to a low standard.

Agris has recently contributed to the Latvian section of the Eversheds European commercial agents guide. Please view, share or download the guide here