Simon holds a Bachelor degree in Law from Fudan University and a Master degree in Administrative Law from Zhejiang University.
Before joining Guantao, he had been worked in the Shanghai Office’s Dispute Resolution and Corporate Compliance Department of a top domestic Red Circle law firm for many years, and once served as the executive director of the Shanghai Office of T&C Law Firm. Simon is ranked as “Top 15 Litigators” by Asian Legal Business (ALB) of Thomson Reuters in 2019.
Simon is specialized in responding to government investigation and law enforcement of health and medical industry, dealing with challenging major corporate crisis events, and providing proposals and advice on complex compliance issues such as corporate compliance governance, government relation and public policy, etc.
Simon has unique opinions on the administrative law enforcement procedures and law enforcement practices of food and drug administration department. His team has rich experience in handling administrative law enforcement and administrative dispute resolution in this field, and often helps relevant multinational enterprises to communicate with government departments on regulatory issues, deals with raids, solves crisis events, and participates in administrative hearing procedures, related reconsideration and litigation procedures on behalf of enterprises.
We have handled a large number of complex compliance investigations and administrative law enforcement cases, involving many aspects of the operation of medical device companies and pharmaceutical companies, including product quality, labeling, advertising and marketing, anti-commercial bribery, data security and privacy protection, anti-monopoly, etc., some of which are complex and difficult cases across regions.
In addition to our headquarter in Beijing, we have local offices in Shanghai and other major cities of China (including some core cities in Guangdong Province and Fujian Province such as Guangzhou, Xiamen and Fuzhou), so that we can make comprehensive use of firm's integrated management mechanism and local offices' local resources to provide our clients with more accurate, efficient and cost-effective services in complex and difficult cases across regions, and to communicate and negotiate with local regulatory authorities more effectively.
Led by Simon, in health and medical industry, the team's main achievements in assisting pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies in response to compliance investigations and corporate crisis events in recent years include:
1. Represented a European medical device company to deal with the crisis event caused by the raid of government drug administration due to the professional whistleblower's report of product quality problems.
The professional whistleblower's report letters were then delivered to drug administrations in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong, which triggering multi-local government investigation procedures. In multiple investigation procedures, on behalf of the company, carried out reporting, communication and negotiation with regulatory authorities, discussed solution plans with regulatory authorities, and responded to the civil claim lawsuit filed by the professional whistleblower.
Finally, successfully helped the client persuade regulatory authorities to stop investigations, and participated in the administrative lawsuit filed by the professional whistleblower against drug administration on behalf of the client;
2、Represented an American medical device company to handle law enforcement investigations of commercial bribery conducted by industrial and commercial bureaus in several cities of Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Taizhou in Zhejiang Province. Assisted the client in internal compliance investigation of anti-commercial bribery, provided the client with advice and suggestions on controlling compliance risks, strengthening dealer management system, and improving compliance system, supported the client in public opinion control, and helped the client strive for results of lighter punishment from industrial and commercial bureaus;
3. Represented a Japanese medical device company to handle government law enforcement investigation caused by the anonymous report of its product marketing materials, helped the client clarify the facts to regulatory authorities, and finally obtained the result of regulatory authorities' decision to stop the investigation;
4. Represented a multinational medical device company headquartered in the United States to deal with the investigation caused by product quality and labeling problems found in Shanghai drug administration's spot check, and helped the client win lenient treatment and mitigated punishment from regulatory authorities;
5. Represented an American medical device company to handle Beijing Industrial and Commercial Bureau's law enforcement investigation on the suspected commercial bribery of its academic sponsorship, and helped the client persuade the bureau to stop the investigation;
6. Represented a French multinational pharmaceutical company in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province to deal with its major commercial bribery case investigated by industrial and commercial bureau, which involving multiple hospitals in multiple places. Through effective communication, persuaded Hangzhou Industrial and Commercial Bureau to stop sending letters of assistance to other industrial and commercial bureaus in potential involved places. Finally, avoided escalation of investigation and expansion of adverse effects, and helped the client win lighter punishment;
7. Represented a leading domestic pharmaceutical company to handle its data exit and other medical data compliance issues related to national security data protection;
8. Represented a top 500 pharmaceutical company to respond to Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation's inquiry and investigation on anti-monopoly, and helped the client persuade the administration to terminate its investigation.
