Norravich Limpanukorn (Commercial and Corporate Law LLM, 2026)

6 May 2026

Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your background/family?

My name is Wish and I'm from Thailand. My family has a family business that they run with my cousins. I'm a first-generation lawyer. In regard to my educational background, I earned an LLB from Thammasat University where I studied an International Program in Business Law, I also spent one year studying Intellectual Property law at the Maurer School of Law, Indiana University, Bloomington.

I would like to start by saying that I never imagined myself to study law as a career. I used to be a math student, I studied pure mathematics for almost a year and decided to choose law later. I, in fact, have even published some math research. It's so ironic because I have more math paper than law papers published, but I ended up studying law anyway because, being a mathematician in my country is not a great career unfortunately.

I did an internship for a few months before going to the United States and then after I finished studying in the US, I just decided to come here immediately. Before coming to the UK, during the semester break prior to studying here, I was preparing for the Bar Exam in my country. In Thailand, the Bar Exam and the lawyer license are separate things. If you want to work as a prosecutor, you need to take the Bar. If you want to work as a lawyer, you need to get the license.

My decision to change from math to law was influenced by the work conditions and general way of things in my country, which are not always great. Sometimes you need a personal or professional connection to facilitate things. My friend had an issue with the authorities (they didn’t carry out their job they way they should do). My friend sought my help because he knew that my family had connections in the area. My family was able to pull some strings, make a call, and the treatment my friend received had a complete turn-around. That was the day I decided to quit mathematics because, I wanted to be able to be a source of help for my friends in the future. I don’t want to face injustice, and I want to provide justice for myself, for my family and for my friends. After this event, I’ve realised that in order to do these things, you need to have friends. In order to have friends, you must have value. I thought that if I continued studying mathematics, no one is going to come to me and say “Hey Wish, can you find equations that can solve this problem for me?” But everyone at some point in their life wants to get legal advice, so they seek a lawyer, not a mathematician, so that's why I changed my career path.

Changing your career in Thailand is a very serious issue, so I knew that my family were not going to allow the change if I spoke to them in advance. In Asian countries, they think when you ‘waste’ one year studying, and then you quit or change course you must not be doing really well, Hence, I decided to resign on my own and then I surprised my family by letting them know I’m going to study law instead as a career.

What do you study and how is your course going?

Currently, I'm studying Commercial and Corporate law, but I am mainly studying Company law modules. Things are going quite well, the professors at Queen Mary are very professional, they are kind, they are great and they are supportive. They have a lot of knowledge that they can share with students and they do it really well, in a very structured way. The very big pain point for students from international countries is that you have to come here and then study the law that you never have touched before. But the professor do their job very well as they are able to explain those laws to us, even if it is the law specialism that we never knew of before. The law here in the UK is totally different from Thailand; but the lecturers are still able to teach us in the way that we can understand it.

Obviously, it has been difficult studying here, it's never easy to leave your safe zone. However, I think the lecturers have helped a lot in this matter. The last semester was great. If you ever have any academic questions, you can ask professors and you can also ask them for other support. The best thing is that you don’t have to limit yourself to only asking your teaching academics, everyone is happy to help. For example, I'm from Thammasat and I have a Senior here who is a lecturer at Queen Mary as well. So, when I have any questions, I always have someone to reach out to.

Why did you choose Queen Mary - CCLS and London?

One of the main reasons is that my friends and I decided to come to the UK and study our masters together. So, we had a consensus of universities we agreed we wanted to attend and Queen Mary was on the list.

Personally, I also knew a professor at my university who graduated from Queen Mary University. One of our professors just came back with a doctoral degree in Intellectual Property law, another of our professors earned a degree in Public International law from Queen Mary and both of them were very great teachers. My family also knew someone personally who graduated from Queen Mary, two years ago. He's a great Public Prosecutor, my dream job. So that's why I decided to come here to London and put Queen Mary on wish list.

How were things before you received the funding?

It was difficult. I would say I was a little bit reluctant to come and study, because, even though I knew my family can support me to a certain extent, I did not want to put them under more financial strain as they already supported my year of study in the United States which was quite expensive. Naturally I was reluctant to ask them for more financial support for an LLM in London, a city that has one of the highest living costs and the international tuition fees, which is a massive amount to pay for the year. I really did start to think about it being worth it to come.

If I did not receive this scholarship, most likely I would have abandoned the idea of studying and focused on working, but after I receives this scholarship, that hesitation was all gone.

As a result of having the scholarship I do not have to think about finding a part-time job while I’m studying, which would make it very difficult to focus. I also can avoid putting my family under more financial pressure because they have no longer have to think about how to support me. In addition I’m preparing for a qualifying exam to take in Thailand, which I would not have had time to do if I had to also work.

How did you feel when you heard you got the funding and has it made an impact for you? If so, in what way?

I was very surprised. It was a big surprise. I got an e-mail that I got this scholarship and I was shocked for a while because I never imagined I would receive it. It was quite shocking and then after the few minutes of shock I was very happy because as I mentioned, it came to my mind I do not have to hesitate anymore. I can grab this opportunity. I can now study my LLM and also study for my Bar exam, which is very difficult as well. I began to also think that because of my scholarship the tuition fee and all the other costs is no longer a heavy burden for my family and myself. 

Do you think financial worries weigh heavily on students?

Of course, yes, financial worries weigh on students a lot or maybe weigh. First thing, I think we must accept this fact that an international student who comes to study abroad certainly have some kind of strong background or support. Some have family support like me, some have country support, such as earning a scholarship from the government or some have their firm’s support with a loan or something like that. However, having that support doesn't mean that you have no concerns about money at all. Some may have a thought like me that they do not want to burden their family and they start to calculate the burden and maybe if they do not receive this opportunity, maybe they will not seize the opportunity to do the LLM at all.

What are your plans for the future?

My ultimate aim is to be a public prosecutor, so I need to finish my Bar first, that is my goal. Just a few weeks ago, I came back to London after I finished some of the Bar exams. Once I completed the Bar, I will start to apply for a job in the government sector and waiting for my term because I need to be 25 years old until I can qualify to take the exam to be a public prosecutor.

This course that I’m studying at Queen Mary gives me a big advantage. In Thailand in order to be a public prosecutor or a judge, there are three examination formats that you can take. The first one has a traditional format everyone who has a LLB and Bar exam can apply to those. Hence, it's very competitive. There's also a route for those who have a master’s degree, which is a little bit less competitive, especially if the masters is from abroad. They want people who have knowledge of the overseas law and who are also proficient in English.

I want to be a public prosecutor and want to work in criminal law but I also really enjoy intellectual property law. In this sense my career path is not completely set in stone as I might find a job in a law firm and become an IP lawyer instead depending on how things work out for me.

What would you like to say to those who donated to provide these awards?

Firstly, I would like to say thank you for this scholarship, it means a lot to me and I'm sure that it also means a lot for every scholarship recipient in the past and in the future. I'm really grateful for it and I believe that there are many people with a strong academic background, even more than me, but they may be hesitating or are deciding whether they should do further study because of financial reasons.

Many think about finances a lot, so that they start to think whether they worthy to study and they may have lose this opportunity if they do not receive the scholarship. So, I would like to just say thank you. At least, one or two students a year receive this opportunity without hesitation. This means the future of these scholarship recipients leads to our subsequent contribution to our countries’ future, to this world, to the legal system. This all comes from you guys who donated. Hence, I would like to say thank you so much!

 

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