Alumni profile - Berlyne Lee

Mon 20 April 2026

Bolin (Berlyne) LI, LLM in International Commerce Law, 2012

Tell us a little bit about your life/background before Edinburgh Law School

Before coming to Edinburgh, I studied law in China and developed a strong interest in cross-border legal and commercial issues. I was particularly drawn to the way international trade, business and regulation shape real-world decisions. At that stage, I wanted to broaden my perspective beyond domestic, legal study and gain a more international understanding of how law operates across different jurisdictions.

What did you study at Edinburgh Law School and why did you choose the programme?

I studied the LLM in International Commerce Law. I chose the programme because I wanted a deeper understanding of the legal framework behind international business, trade and commercial activity. Edinburgh Law School appealed to me because of its strong academic reputation, its international outlook, and the opportunity to study these issues in a diverse and intellectually stimulating environment.

The programme gave me the chance to think more comparatively and more globally. It helped me move beyond seeing law only as a set of local rules and, instead, understand how legal systems interact with markets, institutions and international business practice.

What do you think is unique to the Edinburgh Law School experience and what are some of your favourite memories?

What felt unique to me about Edinburgh Law School was the combination of academic rigour and international perspective. Studying with classmates from different countries and legal backgrounds made classroom discussion much richer, because the same legal issue could be approached in very different ways.

My favourite memories are not only from formal study, but also from the broader experience of living in Edinburgh: the conversations with classmates, the atmosphere of the city, and the feeling of being in a place with such a strong academic tradition.

Looking back, it was a period that expanded both my legal thinking and my understanding of the world.

What have you been up to since graduating/what are you doing after graduation (e.g., your professional or further academic pursuits since leaving Edinburgh Law School) and how have your degree studies with us helped you in this?

Since graduating, I have built my career as an in-house lawyer in China, mainly in the technology sector. I have worked with major technology companies including Alibaba and Tencent, and my work has involved areas such as commercial law, technology regulation, privacy, compliance and, more recently, AI and export control-related matters.

My studies at Edinburgh helped me in two important ways. Firstly, they gave me a strong international perspective, which has been invaluable when dealing with cross-border legal and regulatory questions. Secondly, they trained me to think in a more structured and analytical way, which continues to be important in fast-changing industries where law, business and technology interact very closely.

In my current work, that foundation still matters. Many of the questions I deal with today sit at the intersection of law, innovation and global regulation, and my time at Edinburgh helped prepare me for exactly that kind of complexity.

What advice would you give current Edinburgh Law School students?

I would encourage current students to stay curious and to take their studies seriously, especially in the subjects that genuinely interest them. Not everything you learn will have an immediate or obvious use, but that does not mean it will be wasted.

In my own case, I began my undergraduate studies in mathematics before later moving into law. At the time, it might have seemed that those two or three years of studying mathematics would have little to do with my future legal career. That, though, turned out not to be true at all. The training helped me develop a structured and analytical way of thinking, and later became very useful when I worked in technology companies and had to engage with technical teams, complex systems and fast-changing issues.

Thus, my advice would be: do not think too narrowly about what will or will not be useful in the future. If you study something seriously and learn it well, that effort is rarely wasted. Even if your path changes, the way you learn to think can stay with you and become one of your greatest strengths.

Also, I would encourage students to look beyond the classroom where possible: speak with people from different backgrounds, stay aware of developments in business and technology, and think about how law works in practice. Careers are rarely linear, and some of the most valuable opportunities come from bringing different areas of knowledge together.