Bio

Barbara Li is a partner based in Beijing. With almost three decades’ experience benefiting from her role as a partner at leading international firms in China and UK, a senior in-house position at Ericsson in China, as well as a partner at PwC to provide business consultancy services, Barbara brings a wealth of knowledge to advising international and Chinese companies and financial institutions on doing business in China and globally. She focuses her practice on complex, cross-border M&As, joint ventures, strategic alliances and foreign direct investment in a wide range of industries including the high-tech, telecom, energy, infrastructure, automotive, pharma and high-end manufacturing industries. She also counsels Chinese companies on their outbound strategies and major transactions. Barbara has a particular interest in the cyber, data, technology and FinTech sectors, with significant experience advising international companies and financial institutions on navigating China’s evolving legal regime governing data and cybersecurity. She is regularly engaged by clients to provide legal support on high-stakes data and cybersecurity-related issues including managing complex, cross-border data transfers, the digital transformation of businesses, and the deployment of emerging technologies such as AI, cloud computing and blockchain. Barbara also advises Chinese companies on global data compliance projects under the laws of other countries, such as the EU GDPR. She is recognised as a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/EU) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and is an IAPP-designated writer for the Asia-Pacific region. Barbara is widely recognised in the Chinese market as an eminent data/tech lawyer and is described as “having extensive experience in complex TMT regulatory issues” by Legal 500. She is ranked as a leading individual in corporate, M&A, TMT and FinTech by various legal directories, including Chambers, Legal 500, Asian Legal Business, IFLR1000 and WhichLawyer, and received the China Top 15 TMT Lawyer award 2020 from Asian Legal Business. Benefiting from her in-house experience, Barbara works closely with the industry and is frequently invited to share her insights at premier international professional and industry conferences organised by the IAPP, the Asia Privacy Forum and the Economist Corporate Intelligence Network, among others. She is appointed the member of the IAPP Women Leading Privacy Advisory Board and also serves as the vice chair of the Cybersecurity Sub-Working Group of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China for several years.