Gerrit-Jan studied Dutch law at the University of Leiden, where he also defended his doctoral thesis 'Belastingheffing en Informatieverplichtingen' (Taxation and Information Obligations) in 1998. He is a full professor of law and digital technologies at Leiden University. In addition to that, as of 1st of June 2023 he will also be full professor data protection law at the Dutch Open University.
Before joining Pels Rijcken in 2018, Gerrit-Jan was a partner at Brinkhof and Bird & Bird. He is the author of a number of lectures and articles on digitisation, including for the Dutch Lawyers Association, the Association for Health Law and the Association for Education Law. He is chairman of the Association of Privacy Lawyers (VPR-A) and sits on the board of the Association for Privacy Law (VPR).
He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Information Management of the Ministry of Justice and Security, the Advisory Committee on the Rule of Law of the Netherlands Bar Association, the Advisory Board of the National Archives, and a lecturer and examiner in both the VPR-A specialisation training programme and the VIRA-Grotius programme for ICT lawyers. Finally, he is the editor (and author) of Tekst & Commentaar Privacy en gegevensbeschermingsrecht (8th edition 2022), Concise European Data Protection, E-Commerce and IT Law, Tijdschrift voor internetrecht and Sdu Monografieën ICT-recht.