Shane DeBeer was born in the US, receiving a BA in Russian from the University of California at Irvine in 1986 (following a semester at Leningrad State University in the then USSR in 1983), an MS in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a JD from Georgetown Law School, both in 1991. Following law school, Shane practiced law in private practice, living in Moscow from 1997 to 2008. Today Shane practices law in Monaco.