David Yuan Li, an environmental law attorney in Boston who enjoyed the rigors of the martial arts, died April 14 of a heart attack while practicing Brazilian jujitsu in a martial arts studio in Acton, Mass. He was 52.
Mr. Li was born in Washington and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, the son of parents who emigrated from mainland China. After graduating from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac in 1972, Mr. Li studied business at the University of Maryland before graduating magna cum laude from Georgetown University's business school. He worked briefly as an accountant in San Francisco.
He received a degree in 1981 from Duke University Law School. He worked as an assistant district attorney in Carlsbad, N.M., for two years and then returned to Maryland, where he worked briefly for the state attorney's office.
In 1989, he moved to Boston, where he helped build an environmental task force for Massachusetts. Later, he entered private practice, specializing in environmental law. Mr. Li was a junior partner at Posternak, Blankstein & Lund in Boston and co-chairman of its Environmental Law Group.
Mr. Li was a member of the Brownfields Redevelopment Group in Worcester, Mass. He was also a lecturer at Harvard University's Department of Landscape Architecture, providing a legal overview of Brownfields -- contaminated or abandoned industrial sites. He also wrote a textbook chapter about Brownfields.
He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Martine Voiret, and three sons, Gregory, Christopher and Alex Li, all of Boston; and two sisters, Claire Ming McLane of Chevy Chase and Anne Ling Li of Newton, Mass. (Source: Washington Post, Apr 24, 2007).