Joshua Li
Counsel, Head of Hong Kong Employment & Incentives, Hong Kong SAR
"I advise on a broad range of advisory, transactional and contentious employment and incentives matters in Hong Kong and across the Asia Pacific region. I collaborate with clients to provide practical, comprehensive legal advice."
Overview
Professional experience
Education and qualifications
Overview
Joshua is a key member of our Employment & Incentives practice in Asia Pacific and has extensive experience advising on a wide range of advisory, transactional and contentious employment and incentives matters.
Joshua works closely with human resources professionals, legal counsel and senior management on all aspects of the employment relationship, including recruitment structuring, development and alterations of compensation and benefit programmes, discrimination issues, privacy obligations, restraint of trade and strategic advice on restructuring, cost-cutting, downsizing, and termination of employment. He has also had considerable involvement in the employment and incentives aspects of a series of high-profile M&A and restructuring matters.
Joshua regularly advises employers in relation to contentious matters, including termination and bonus disputes, equal opportunities complaints, enforcement of restrictive covenants and protection of confidential information, and has experience assisting with and advising on different stages of Labour Tribunal and High Court proceedings. Joshua’s expertise extends beyond the management of an actual dispute. He often delivers trainings to employers on a range of employment topics and advises them on workplace investigations into alleged misconduct and grievances.
Working closely with our regional network, Joshua’s work often has a cross-border element and involves coordinating legal counsel from multiple jurisdictions to deliver comprehensive, consistent and user-friendly advice to clients.
Work highlights
Highlights of Joshua’s extensive experience include advising:
Advisory and transactional
- on the high-profile provisional liquidation of Genting Hong Kong Limited, in particular the impact on its employees globally.
- on the employment, incentives and pensions aspects of a number of significant corporate transactions, including the sale of Jardine OneSolutions and Innovix by Jardines, the reorganisation and sale of Unilever’s tea business and the sale of BEA Life and Blue Cross by The Bank of East Asia.
- on a number of senior executive terminations, the establishment of cash or share-based incentive plans and other human resources planning initiatives for a diverse client base across multiple sectors, in particular financial institutions and insurance companies, investment managers, multinational conglomerates and technology firms.
Contentious
- a Hong Kong listed company on workplace grievance in relation to stress at work and unsatisfactory performance appraisal.
- on sensitive termination issues involving an employee taking long-term sick leave or other allegations of discrimination.
- a number of multinational companies on the investigation process, disciplinary actions and/or practical solutions for alleged sexual harassment, various forms of workplace bullying or other workplace misconduct.