Kim Kardashian Studying to Become a Lawyer, Sets Goal to Take Bar Exam in 2022

Kim Kardashian Studying to Become a Lawyer, Sets Goal to Take Bar Exam in 2022
Kim Kardashian-West speaks at The Girls' Lounge dinner, giving visibility to women at Advertising Week 2016, at Pier 60 on September 27, 2016 in New York City. Kardashian doesn't want Kanye West to replace stolen engagement ring. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The Girls' Lounge)
Janita Kan
4/10/2019
Updated:
4/11/2019

Reality television star Kim Kardashian has revealed in a recent interview that she is studying to become a lawyer—without actually going to law school—and has set a goal to take the bar exam in 2022.

Kardashian, who is the Vogue’s May issue cover star, told the magazine that she started a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco last summer. California is one of only four states in the country where students can receive a legal education in a law office. The other three states include Virginia, Vermont, and Washington state.

“I had to think long and hard about this,” the beauty mogul said.

She said her career change was inspired by her successful advocacy work in seeking clemency for Alice Johnson’s sentence.

“The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency, and I’m sitting in the Roosevelt Room with, like, a judge who had sentenced criminals and a lot of really powerful people and I just sat there, like, Oh, [expletive] I need to know more,” she explained to Vogue.

“I would say what I had to say, about the human side and why this is so unfair. But I had attorneys with me who could back that up with all the facts of the case. It’s never one person who gets things done; it’s always a collective of people, and I’ve always known my role, but I just felt like I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society. I just felt like the system could be so different, and I wanted to fight to fix it, and if I knew more, I could do more,” she added.

TV personality Kim Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration at Ysabel in West Hollywood, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2015. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
TV personality Kim Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration at Ysabel in West Hollywood, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2015. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Kardashian will be required to study law during regular business hours for at least 18 hours each week with a minimum of 48 weeks to receive credit for one year of study, according to the Californian Bar admission rules.

After completing her first year of study, Kardashian will be required to take the First-Year Law Student’s Exam or the “baby bar” that is set by the state. This test is for students who are not studying at an American Bar Association-accredited law school and is known for being notoriously difficult. If she passes, she will then receive credit for her first year of study.

“First year of law school, you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts,” Kim explained to the magazine.

“To me, torts is the most confusing, contracts the most boring, and criminal law I can do in my sleep. Took my first test, I got a 100. Super easy for me. The reading is what really gets me. It’s so time-consuming. The concepts I grasp in two seconds,” she said.

Last year, the celebrity met with President Donald Trump in the White House to ask him to pardon Johnson, who was serving life in prison for drug conspiracy and money laundering.

She learned of the woman’s story in early 2018 and contacted Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who connected Kardashian with her husband, Jared Kushner—who was working on a prison reform initiative at the time.

Trump eventually commuted Johnson’s sentence after Kardashian’s intervention.