In 2019, Kim Kardashian announced she was following in the footsteps of her late father, Robert Kardashian, by pursuing a law career. Kim became interested in the profession after working alongside attorneys to help free Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving a life sentence for a non-violent drug charge. Kim became involved in the case after reading about it on Twitter. Her advocacy work helped bring the case to the White House where the President granted Alice a full pardon in 2020.
Here is a rundown of Kim’s law school history, including whether she passed the baby bar.
Why did Kim Kardashian want to study law?
Kim discovered a love for advocacy after working on Alice’s case, but felt she needed to know more about the law in order to progress.
“The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency,” she told Vogue in April 2019. “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, sh*t. I need to know more.’”
“I would say what I had to say, about the human side and why this is so unfair,” she added. “But I had attorneys with me who could back that up with all the facts of the case … 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.”
The public had mixed reactions to Kim’s new career endeavor. Some people applauded her for furthering her education, others accused her of taking a shortcut by studying via an apprenticeship rather than going to law school.
In a 2019 interview with CNN’s Vance Jones, Kim said she has no time for the haters.
“If someone wants to do something positive, [why] does it bother you?” she asked.
What is the baby bar?
Rather than going to law school, Kim chose to pursue her degree through an apprenticeship. She spoke about the experience in an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
“If you are doing law school the way I’m doing it, it is a four-year program instead of your typical three-year program. And after year one, you have to take the baby bar,” she explained.
So, what is the baby bar? According to UWorld Legal, the baby bar is a “1-day exam for first-year students in unaccredited law schools or the Law Office Study Program in California.”
Kim spoke about the process in 2019.
“First year of law school you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts,” she told the outlet. “To me, torts is the most confusing, contracts the most boring, and crim 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.”
Did Kim Kardashian pass the baby bar?
Kim took the baby bar for the first time in the summer of 2020. She failed the exam, but stayed determined. The Hulu Star took the test again in the fall of 2020 and received a lower score than her first attempt. She passed the bar on her fourth try in December 2021.
“OMFGGGG I PASSED THE BABY BAR EXAM!!!!” she wrote in an Instagram Post. “Looking in the mirror, I am really proud of the woman looking back today in the reflection.For anyone who doesn’t know my law school journey, know this wasn’t easy or handed to me. I failed this exam 3 times in 2 years, but I got back up each time and studied harder and tried again until I did it!!!
Kim still has to pass a second exam before becoming a licensed lawyer in California.
“In California, the way I’m studying law you need to take 2 bar exams, this was just the first one but with the harder pass rate,” she wrote in the post’s caption. “I was told by top lawyers that this was a close to impossible journey and harder than the traditional law school route but it was my only option and it feels so so sooooo good to be here and on my way to achieving my goals.”
The Kardashians is available to stream on Hulu.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF KIM’S LAW JOURNEY?
