Why not use styles to control line-spacing or li height instead of using <br>?

li { margin-bottom: 0.5em }

or whatever. Ideally your page should read:

<p>Blah Blah Blah some paragraph text blah blah blah</p>
<ul>
<li>some item</li>
<li>some item</li>
</ul>
<p>Blah Blah Blah some paragraph text blah blah blah</p>

And if you must use the <br> tag, it should be closed: <br />