LEI LI is the managing partner of Sidley's Beijing office. Since 2007, Lei has been advising companies on a broad range of regulatory, compliance, and government enforcement matters in China and international markets, with a particular focus in the high-tech and life sciences industries, and is one of the most respected legal practitioners in China in his areas of practice.
In the life sciences field, Lei is the co-head of Sidley’s renowned China Life Sciences Practice, which has set the record of winning the “Band 1” ranking by Chambers in the “Life Science – Greater China Region” category 16 years in a row since it was launched (2010 to 2025). For over a decade, Lei has advised multinational and local Chinese pharmaceutical and medical device companies on all types of matters across the full spectrum of the industry and has handled some of the largest and most representative matters in the industry in China in the last decade.
Lei is a seasoned antitrust lawyer, and has practiced antitrust law in China (i.e., the Anti-monopoly Law) since its inception in 2008. Lei has focused his antitrust practice on regulatory compliance, internal investigations and government investigations. Particularly, he has acted as the lead external counsel to his clients in several high-stake antitrust inquiries and investigations launched by the central and provincial antitrust authorities in China, all in the high-tech and life sciences industries.
Lei has extensive experience in all types of anti-corruption compliance and investigation matters in China. Representing both multinational companies and local Chinese companies, he has handled a large number of government anti-corruption investigations under both Chinese laws and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), including representing companies in several high-stake civil and criminal investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). He also has advised a large number of multinational companies in setting up their anti-corruption compliance and internal control programs in China.
Prior to joining the firm, Lei worked at the central government of China (Ministry of Commerce, MOFCOM) for eight years (1998 to 2006) as a senior attorney, where he handled trade and investment disputes between the Chinese and foreign governments and supervised Chinese companies’ handling of complex commercial litigation in the U.S. and Europe. Since joining the firm, Lei has continued this practice and advised a large number of Chinese companies in various types of regulatory, enforcement and litigation matters in the U.S. and EU, with a particular focus on international trade compliance and investigation matters. In the trade defense area, Lei and the Sidley team advised Chinese solar panel manufacturers in the decade-long anti-dumping and countervailing investigations initiated by the U.S. and EU governments, which was the largest government investigation in the global trade history, in addition to several other major trade defense cases (most recently, the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation on electric vehicles from China). In the economic sanction, export control and customs law areas, Lei has been advising major Chinese high-tech companies in dealing with highly complex regulatory license and approval matters in the U.S. and EU, as well as government investigation and enforcement matters, including a few criminal investigations in the U.S.
For each of these practice areas, Lei has received prominent rankings by leading bar publications, with some selected ones as follows:
- For his multidisciplinary life sciences work, Lei has been recognized by Chambers (every year since 2015) and Who’s Who Legal (every year since 2016) as a leading life sciences lawyer in China. Chambers described him as “always thinks ahead of the curve on new, emerging legal issues in the industry and provides practical solutions to them.” The Legal 500 awarded him the prominent “Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year” (China) title in 2023, and ranked him as a “Leading Partner” in the “Life Sciences” category in 2025.
- For his antitrust compliance and enforcement work, since 2014 he has received multiple major awards and recognitions by, among others, Chambers, IFLR 1000, and China Business Law Journal.
- For his anti-corruption compliance and investigation work, Lei has been recognized by Chambers as a leading lawyer in China in the “Corporate Investigations” category (every year since 2019), and by The Legal 500 as a “Leading Partner” in the “Regulatory/Compliance” category (2025), and was lauded as “solid” and a “good longstanding practitioner.”
- In the area of international trade and cross-border complex commercial litigation, for 13 years in a row, Lei and the Sidley team have been recognized by Chambers as a “Band-1” team in the “International Trade/WTO” category in Asia Pacific (2013 to 2025). In addition, Lei was awarded the “International Firm of the Year for Trade” recognition by The American Lawyer/China Law & Practice in 2015.
- Due to his prominent work in these areas, Lei has been recognized by several influential bar publications as a leading lawyer in China’s legal community, including winning the “China Client Choice Lawyer” award by Asian Legal Business for three years in a row (2018-2020), and receiving the recognitions as “China’s Elite Lawyers” (2022) and “Visionaries” (2023, 2024) by China Business Law Journal.
Lei joined Sidley at its New York office in 2007 and practiced in the regulatory law group for three years, and relocated to its Beijing office in 2010.
Lei graduated from Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade Law School with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree in 1998 with high distinction. He received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Harvard Law School in 2007, where he was a F.Y. Chang Scholar.