Gary Gao

Mr. Gary Gao, admitted to the PRC Bar in 1995, is the Partner and the Head of Compliance & Regulatory Department of Zhong Lun Law Firm. In addition, Mr. Gao is the Co-Chair of the ESG Committee of the World Bar Association (WLG) (responsible for the Asia Pacific region), the Member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration and ADR Committee and the Distinguished Professor of East China University of Political Science and Law.

Before being admitted by the PRC Bar in 1995, Mr. Gao had worked as a criminal judge in a district court in Shanghai since 1990.  He is an experienced and skilled litigator and arbitrator with near 30 years of experience handling complex, cross-border arbitration, litigation, and sophisticated commercial disputes. Mr. Gao has represented clients or acted as arbitrator, in commercial arbitration before the ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, CITEC, BAC, SHIAC and other arbitral institutions.  Mr. Gao is familiar with the strategic planning of dispute resolution in multiple jurisdictions, the application of the law (especially those relating to the application of the common law), the collection, screening and presentation of cross-border evidence. He also acts as an expert witness on Chinese law in foreign litigation or arbitration legal proceedings to provide legal advice on Chinese substantive and procedural law for clients or cooperative foreign lawyer teams.

Besides, Mr. GAO has rich work experience in compliance & regulatory as well. He is very familiar with international business skills and traps in the negotiations and accumulated rich experience for the compliance of companies. Mr. Gao has assisted many multinational enterprises, institutions, and large domestic enterprises in different industries to deal with compliance issues, including coping with cross-border investigations, joint investigations by multinational governments, criminal investigations by overseas law enforcement agencies, building a comprehensive compliance system, cyber security, and data compliance services, state secrets review, judicial assistance and witness preparation for cross-border investigation, strategy for crisis issues and firewall program design and implementation at home and abroad, provide clients with criminal defense, conduct internal compliance investigations on management, initiate criminal procedures and deal with employee dismissals, and provide compliance training services to management, employees and business partners.

Bar Admissions/Professional Qualifications

• PRC Bar, 1995

Education

• LL.M. in International Commercial Law, University of Hertfordshire, 1999-2000
• LL.B. in Economic Law, East China University of Political Science and Law, 1986-1990

Professional Experience

• Partner, Zhong Lun Law Firm, Shanghai Office, 2014 to present
• Partner, Shanghai Duan & Duan Law Firm, 1997-2014
• Partner, All Bright Law Offices (formerly known as: Tian He Law Office), 1995-1997

Languages

• Chinese
• English