The ground and some excited states of the Li atom in external uniform magnetic fields are calculated by means of our two-dimensional mesh Hartree-Fock method for field strengths ranging from zero up to 2.35 ϫ10 8 T. With increasing field strength, the ground state undergoes two transitions involving three different electronic configurations: for weak fields, the ground-state configuration arises from the field-free 1s 2 2s configuration; for intermediate fields, it arises from the 1s 2 2p Ϫ1 configuration, and in high fields, the 1s2 p Ϫ1 3d Ϫ2 electronic configuration is responsible for the properties of the atom. The transition field strengths are determined. Calculations on the ground state of the Li ϩ ion allow us to describe the fielddependent ionization energy of the Li atom. Some general arguments on the ground states of multielectron atoms in strong magnetic fields are provided.