Xinning Shirley Liu
Licensed to Practice Law In:
President
The State of Florida
Xinning Shirley Liu is the President of XL Law & Consulting P.A., a law firm dedicated exclusively to serving colleges and universities. Her practice focuses on international higher education, data privacy and artificial intelligence, and research compliance and security, with particular experience advising institutions on matters that cross jurisdictions, regulatory regimes, and institutional functions..
Shirley advises colleges and universities on the development, operation, restructuring, and wind-down of international programs and activities around the world. Her work includes international campuses and academic programs, joint and dual-degree arrangements, global partnerships, international student recruitment, cross-border contracting, and the legal and operational issues that arise when U.S. institutions operate abroad. She regularly helps institutions evaluate and manage regulatory, governance, employment, tax, intellectual property, data privacy, and compliance risks associated with their global activities. While Shirley has particularly extensive experience in China and Asia, her international practice spans institutional activities and partnerships across numerous jurisdictions.
A significant part of Shirley’s practice also focuses on data privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. She counsels institutions on U.S. and international privacy and data-protection laws, cross-border data transfers, institutional privacy programs, data governance, and the increasingly complex regulatory issues surrounding the adoption and use of AI.
Her AI practice includes advising institutions on AI governance and policies, procurement contracting for enterprise AI tools, privacy and data-use risks, generative and agentic AI, implementation of AI systems across academic and administrative functions, and emerging U.S. and international AI regulation. She also assists institutions in responding to data-security incidents and evaluating their privacy and regulatory obligations when institutional or third-party systems are compromised.
Shirley also advises universities on research compliance, research security, and cross-border research activities, particularly where international collaboration intersects with U.S. national-security requirements. Her work includes research security and foreign-influence requirements, export controls, international research collaborations, foreign researchers and visitors, federal research-security requirements, disclosure and due-diligence processes, and restrictions involving countries and entities of concern. She helps institutions develop practical compliance frameworks that allow international research and academic collaboration to continue while protecting federally funded research, controlled technology, sensitive data, and institutional research resources.
Her practice increasingly extends to healthcare and academic medicine where these areas intersect with international activities, privacy and AI, and research. Working with other members of the XL Law team as appropriate, Shirley assists universities, academic medical centers, and other higher education clients in addressing healthcare-related issues involving health information and privacy, AI technologies, international clinical and academic activities, research, data sharing, and the overlapping regulatory obligations that arise when healthcare, higher education, and research functions converge.
Across these areas, Shirley’s practice emphasizes not only legal compliance but also practical implementation. She regularly works with general counsel, academic leadership, research offices, privacy and information-security teams, international offices, procurement, and other university stakeholders to translate complex and rapidly changing regulatory requirements into workable institutional policies, contracts, governance structures, and risk-management strategies.
Shirley has worked in-house at the Office of the General Counsel for Florida International University. Earlier in her career, she practiced in the Corporate, Securities and Tax Group at Carlton Fields and clerked with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shirley has held numerous leadership roles with the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), including serving on its Board of Directors from 2022–2025, and has served on numerous NACUA committees and affinity groups. She is a frequent speaker and author on international higher education, global data privacy, artificial intelligence, research security, and related compliance issues. Her presentations and publications have addressed topics including AI and legal and research ethics, international data privacy, research security and foreign influence, international research, cross-border programs, and the legal risks associated with operating abroad.
Shirley received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and her B.A. and B.B.A. from the University of Miami. Her international academic experience includes study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, and the University of Oxford. She was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in law and economic development and a U.S. Department of Defense National Security Education Program Boren Scholar in Beijing and Hong Kong. Born in China, Shirley is fluent in Mandarin and Fujianese.