Lillian Li is a dual-qualified Senior Associate in Quinn Emanuel’s Hong Kong office. She has been admitted in Hong Kong since 2014 and New York since 2018. Lillian has acted as counsel in international commercial and investment treaty arbitrations. Her practice also covers a broad spectrum of cross-border litigation cases, which include white-collar and insolvency matters.

Her recent experience includes acting for the CEO of a major Korean company in a USD 2 billion dispute against a consortium of private equity firms in multiple arbitrations; acting for a European investor against an Asian state in relation to its investment in a Korean company; and acting for a Chapter 11 Trustee in cross-border insolvency proceedings that arose out of the collapse of a giant seafood company, listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Prior to joining Quinn Emanuel, Lillian was an associate in the Dispute Resolution team of another leading American law firm for several years, where her practice also included high-profile judicial review cases and advising on non-contentious matters including regulatory, compliance, and data privacy issues.

Lillian is also committed to pro-bono. She has filed amicus briefs on behalf of NGOs before the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal in landmark constitutional cases. Previously, she worked for the UN Committee against Torture, advised the UK and Hong Kong governments on human rights legislation in emerging areas of law, and regularly works with local NGOs.

Previously, Lillian was a judicial clerk to the Vice President of the European Court of Human Rights in France, and also a judicial assistant at the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and High Court.

Crystal has an active arbitration practice throughout Malaysia, Singapore and the ASEAN region, with an emphasis on electricity, conventional and renewable energy generation, water supply, and complex infrastructure & engineering projects. She is a trusted advisor to clients comprising of utility companies, independent power producers, government-linked companies and multinational companies. Her experience includes an extended stint with a leading international utilities conglomerate.

As co-head of the Firm’s China Desk, Crystal has also gained a strong reputation as a trusted advisor and leading solicitor to Chinese state-owned enterprises and other mainland Chinese companies investing in Malaysia. In this area of her practice, she is aided by the Chinese legal training she received at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing, as well as her fluency in English and Mandarin and first-hand understanding of Chinese corporate and social culture.

Crystal is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and sits on the panel of arbitrators for the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) and Chinese Arbitration Association, Taipei. Crystal also holds numerous committee appointments, including Committee Member of the Arbitration Committee for the Bar Council of Malaysia, Director of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), Malaysia Branch, and Committee Member of the Belt & Road Committee for the Young Practitioners Group of AIAC. She is also a Regional Ambassador of the HK45, Hong Kong International of Arbitration Centre, the sole member from Malaysia of the Rising Arbitrators Initiative, and the founder of the Malaysian Chapter of Energy Related Arbitration Practitioners (ENERAP).

In 2022, she was selected by Asian Legal Business as one of the “Malaysia Rising Stars 2022”. Crystal was also described as “a very capable, dedicated and reliable lawyer”, who is “knowledgeable and has great commercial acumen”, "extremely hard-working and always puts in the extra efforts to really understand and analyse the clients' matter, regardless of its complexity and technicality", “responsive and great communication skills”, “excellent organization skills” and “delivers work of quality that exceeds clients' expectations”. She has been recently ranked by Chambers & Partners Asia Pacific 2023 as an up-and-coming disputes lawyer who specialises in construction mandates, who “is especially well versed in the intricacies of arbitration”.