In 2018, Professor Gao Fuping joined Watson & Band as a Senior Partner. Professor Gao holds a PhD in Civil and Commercial Law from the China University of Political Science and Law as a protege of Professor Jiang Ping, a famous jurist. After graduation in 1998, he began his career as an instructor at the East China University of Political Science and Law, where he remains today. Mr. Gao served as Dean of the Intellectual Property Institute from 2004 to 2014. Professor Gao’s current titles include College of Law Professor, Director of Doctoral Supervisors in Civil and Commercial Law, Director of the Property Law Research Institute, Director of the Data Law Research Center, Director of the E-Commerce Law Research Institute, Deputy Director and Secretary General of the Policy and Law Committee of the China E-Commerce Association, Executive Director of the China Civil Law Research Institute and Executive Director of the China Internet and Information Law Society. As a participating scholar for the Shanghai Shuguang Project, a US Fulbright Senior Visiting Scholar, a Shanghai Model Teacher and a leading Shanghai talent, Mr. Gao has been granted a special allowance by the State Council.

As a part-time lawyer, Mr. Gao is an independent director at a public company, a position that has endowed him with experience in corporate governance and risk management. After a long period of tracking Internet application practices and industries, his strong influence has helped him provide theoretical and policy support to governments and enterprises involved in the development of law and policy in Internet governance, e-commerce regulation, the development of the data content industry and in data protection and utilization. He has handled a number of consultation projects for prominent international enterprises including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Intel, Ebay China, Microsoft and General Motors. In 2016 he became the Director of the Big Data Policy Law Research Center of the National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Flow and Transaction Technology. Professor Gao completed a research project on legal issues surrounding privacy protection and data protection for big data under direct entrustment from the State Cyberspace Office; provided consulting services to Shanghai Data Exchange Corp., Shanghai Shenkang Medical Management Center and other big data institutions; undertook a research project on big data for the Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Committee, the Administration for Industry and Commerce and other organizations; and provided consulting services to the Shanghai municipal government on policy-making for big data technology.

Mr. Gao’s researches focus on areas including property law, e-commerce law, Internet information law and intellectual property law. He has completed many national, provincial and ministerial level research projects.

Mr. Gao is the chief expert for Research on Legal Systems for Information Services and Transactions, a landmark project that is sponsored by the National Social Sciences Fund. Mr. Gao has published over 20 books and more than 100 academic papers.