Bird & Bird associate Ning-Ning Li shares her journey from a science background to a legal career, the crucial role of attention to detail, and her involvement in one of world’s biggest Bitcoin legal battles
“I have always enjoyed litigation because it’s very heavily team based – the team is absolutely crucial,” says Ning-Ning Li, associate Bird & Bird‘s intellectual property (IP) group. “Within each litigation, there’s so much going on. You might have an urgent deadline and feel like you’re going mad, but you have your team there to share it all with and that’s a really nice feeling – you end up becoming great friends.”
Li came to law from a science background, having studied biochemistry at Oxford University. She ruled out a scientific research career after doing a few lab placements in her summer holidays: “It wasn’t for me — I just wasn’t very good at them!” she confesses. Having heard about the law conversion course from a friend, Li was inspired to take her scientific education into the legal world. “I discovered the synergies that exist between my degree and law, particularly intellectual property law,” she recalls. “I found that a scientific background could prove quite useful. I was used to taking a logical approach and picking key points out of a lot of information.” Technical scientific knowledge also comes in handy for IP lawyers, particularly those working on IP patent disputes. “We often represent pharmaceutical clients in big patent disputes,” Li explains. “As part of that, we speak to scientific experts in that particular field, whether it is a particular enzyme or a particular type of cancer. If you have a science background, you can get yourself up to speed quite quickly on the key concepts.”
“If you want to do IP, there are very few firms that do it better than Bird & Bird,” Li tells me. In addition to the size and reputation of the firm’s IP group, Li praises “the genuine camaraderie amongst the team”, adding, “I might not have known about this when I applied, but that is what’s kept me here.” She completed a vacation scheme at the firm before accepting a training contract offer. “During my training contract, I did two seats in IP. One was more focused on transactions and the other was on the litigation side,” she recalls. Her practice these days focuses on contentious work. For Li, this has become more and more stimulating as her career has progressed, “Once you’ve qualified as an associate and start moving up in your career, you develop the ability to look at the big picture overview and think five steps ahead,” she says, “These tactical skills are something you’re continually developing, no matter how senior you get.” The event of a trial is another draw to contentious work. “Of course, once you finally get to trial, that’s always really fun. The barristers do it every day, but for us, because we only go once in a while for our big cases, it’s quite exciting!”
So, what skills will aspiring IP lawyers need to brush up on? “You need attention to detail,” Li responds decisively. “This is absolutely crucial, particularly at the more junior end. I have seen cases rise and fall because seemingly minor errors went unspotted.”
She recalls one particularly disastrous occasion for an opposing counsel:
“I had a patent case, years and years ago, where there was an error like this – it was on the other side, thank goodness! In one section of their expert report, it turned out that the expert had been looking at a diagram the wrong way around,” Li tells me. “Incredibly, no one had noticed this until it was pointed out in court. Of course, that entire piece of analysis was just out the window, and their evidence lost all credibility.”
“Attention to detail played a significant role in the Bitcoin case,” Li continues, referring to COPA v Wright, in which she was a part of the Bird & Bird team representing the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).The High Court found that Dr Wright was not the creator of Bitcoin and was not the individual behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, ending his campaign to control the cryptocurrency industry by asserting IP rights in Bitcoin against other developers. This case is unlike others that Li has worked on: “Ostensibly it was a copyright case,” she says “but really it was a massive factual investigation. Attention to detail was crucial because the case was so fact heavy and relied on rather painstaking analysis of where details did not stack up.” Li will be discussing this case on the panel at Legal Cheek’s virtual event, ‘COPA v Wright: The Bitcoin Case — with Bird & Bird’, on 15 October.
The success achieved by the Bird & Bird team for COPA underscores another aspect of litigation work that Li particularly enjoys. “One of the great advantages of litigation is that when things go well you get to see the fruits of your labour and it’s very satisfying. It’s great to see that a piece of evidence is having the effect in court that you hoped it would when you prepared it,” she says. This case did present some unusual challenges, however, mostly due to its high-profile nature. “The defendant was, and always has been, very active on social media so there was increased discussion on those platforms,” Li explains. Once the case went to trial, wider media attention around it picked up. “The client had to be very prepared. They had a whole PR setup to help manage the media attention. We were getting approached by media as well and we have an internal PR team to help us deal with that. The key thing was putting out a consistent message,” she says.
Outside the realm of IP litigation, I’m curious to know what current trends are influencing Li’s work at Bird & Bird. “AI is huge,” she responds. “It’s not just impacting life sciences and IP but the legal industry as a whole.” While AI isn’t entirely new to litigators — “to some extent, we’ve always used a bit of AI for disclosure tasks,” Li explains — she emphasises that the role of AI in law firms is evolving rapidly. “Now, people are asking whether AI can start drafting parts of our pleadings or responses to letters,” she adds. For Li, knowledge of the latest AI applications is a way for aspiring solicitors to set themselves apart as they research the legal industry. “I would really advise candidates to read up on AI, not as a fuzzy concept, but specifically where it has applications to the legal profession. It has grown from being a hot topic to being technology with concrete applications,” she emphasises, adding “I know that Bird & Bird is running a trial across multiple offices with a company called Leya, which will apply AI to various legal tasks for use cases. We also have an AI steering committee focusing on safe and responsible use of AI.”
On this note, as we wrap up our discussion, I ask Li for the careers advice she would give to young lawyers. Her advice is to look ahead: “Explore all the areas you’re interested in but keep an eye out for what you can build a practice around,” she says, “If you’re looking towards partnership in the future, finding something that you are good at and which you can build on will stand you in good stead.”
Meet Bird & Bird at ‘COPA v Wright: The Bitcoin Case — with Bird & Bird’, a virtual event taking place on Tuesday 15 October. Apply now to attend
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