He is an intellectual property and information technology/internet lawyer who has pioneered the teaching of internet/cyber law in Australia.

Since March 2012 he has been the executive dean of law at the Australian Catholic University, based in Melbourne.

Fitzgerald is a chief investigator and program leader for law in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence on Creative Industries and Innovation.

[2] His current projects include work on intellectual property issues across the areas of copyright, digital content and the internet, copyright and the creative industries in China, open content licensing and the Creative Commons, free and open source software, research use of patents, patent informatics administration licensing, Science Commons, e-research, licensing of digital entertainment and anti-circumvention law.

Fitzgerald has been featured in The Sydney Morning Herald,[3] The Science Show,[4] and The Law Report[5] discussing copyright related legal issues.