Barbara Li is a tech/data/M&A lawyer and partner based in the Beijing/HongKong office of international law firm Reed Smith LLP.
Barbara is widely recognised 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 Band-1 Data Protection Practitioner by Chambers, Leading Individual in Corporate, M&A, TMT and FinTech by Legal500, named the Data Protection Lawyer of the Year 2024 by Legal500, and received the China Top 15 TMT Lawyer award 2020 from Asian Legal Business.
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 an MNC 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 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 life sciences, pharma and medical devices, healthcare, automotive, aviation, consumer brands, e-commerce, financial services, and high-end manufacturing. She also counsels Chinese companies on their outbound strategies and major investments and transactions.
Barbara has a particular expertise in the cyber, data, technology and FinTech sectors, with significant experience advising MNCs 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, big data, 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.
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, AdvaMed, AmCham, the Asia Privacy Forum and the Economist Corporate Intelligence Network, among others.
She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/EU) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), an IAPP-designated writer for the Asia-Pacific region and sits on the IAPP Women Leading Privacy Advisory Board. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Cybersecurity Sub-Working Group of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
Barbara is dual-qualified in the UK and China and highly proficient in both English and Chinese.