About

Over the course of her career, Ally Li has spent seven years in the private practice and two decades in-house. As such, she has a wealth of experience to draw from, including in-house legal roles with Walmart and Best Buy, the latter of which she spent a total of eight years at and advanced to the position of general counsel. At Best Buy, Li reported directly to the global general counsel and successfully developed the legal team from a cost centre to a profit centre. She was also involved in the closure of Best Buy’s retail operations in China and successfully implementing the change with the minimum possible cost to the overall business. Li moved to cosmetics giant Estee Lauder in January 2016, and in the 12 months since she has made her mark as a versatile and effective legal professional. Li explains that she prizes ‘collaborative relationships…based on trust and respect’. Li is keen to ensure her team fulfil their full potential, explaining that she ‘identifies and cultivates the essential skills and attributes [of the team] to maximise individual contributions, engagement capabilities and management systems’. As well as holding responsibility for legal affairs and regulatory compliance both in China and overseas, Li also deals with trademark protection efforts and site security for the company’s offices around China. She is positive about the future role that technology will play in legal affairs: ‘I would like to see more artificial intelligence used in routine legal work’, she enthuses, ‘to improve efficiency and cost management’. Li’s achievements as the first general counsel for China at Estee Lauder, and her broad remit are evidence of the esteem with which she is held in by the company as a whole.