Paul Li

Hong Kong

Simmons & Simmons · Paul is an Of Counsel with Simmons & Simmons. Prior to that role Paul was a partner of Simmons & Simmons from 1998 to 2019, having joined the firm in London as a trainee in 1989. During that period he has held several senior management positions, including Head of Asia from 2011 onwards. In that role Paul was responsible for the firm’s business in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and Tokyo. In addition to his management responsibilities Paul also maintained a fee earning role. His area of specialty is financial markets regulation where he was active in relation to transactional work, advising on regulatory enforcement issues and defending FIs in connection with mis-selling disputes. Most recently his focus has been to advise clients on the migration of their bricks and mortar businesses on to digital platforms. His work has given Paul the practical experience of managing teams across practice disciplines and jurisdictions. He first became interested in financial markets regulation, when he started as a trainee solicitor just five months after the Financial Services Act came into force in the UK. At the time it was regarded as a new area of law. Realising, at an early stage, the importance of regulation as a specialism, he played an key role in establishing Simmons’ specialist contentious regulatory team in London in 1995 (after a period on secondment to the predecessor of the FCA) and their HK funds and regulatory practice when he transferred to Hong Kong in 2000 He has been involved in a led teams in connection with a number of notable transactions / investigations. Examples of which, involving interaction with the SFC, include the authorisation of the first private sector ETF, the authorisation first synthetic ETF and the Market Misconduct Tribunal in connection with CITIC Pacific.

Hong Kong