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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKim Kardashian West is studying to become a lawyer
As with most things to do with the Kardashians, youve doubtlessly absorbed the news (whether you wanted to or not) that Kim played a role in the release last summer of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old woman whod been in an Alabama prison on a nonviolent drug charge since 1996, and whose case Kim had learned about through social media. After President Trump met with her, the CNN commentator and activist Van Jones, and several lawyers, he granted Johnson clemency and then invited her to his State of the Union Address in February. What you probably dont know is that Kim has been working with Jones and the attorney Jessica Jackson, cofounders of #cut50, a national bipartisan advocacy group on criminal-justice reform, for months, visiting prisons, petitioning governors, and attending meetings at the White House. And last summer, she made the unlikely decisionone she knew would be met with an eye roll for the agesto begin a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco, with the goal of taking the bar in 2022.
I had to think long and hard about this, she says, gleefully devouring chile con queso with chips now that her Vogue shoot is over. What inspired her to embark on something so overwhelmingly difficult and time-consumingeven as she also runs a multimillion-dollar beauty enterprisewas the combination of seeing a really good result with Alice Marie Johnson and feeling out of her depth. The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency, she says, and Im 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, shit. I need to know more. 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. Its never one person who gets things done; its always a collective of people, and Ive 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.
Jones had been collaborating with Jackson on building bipartisan unity around the need to shrink the incarceration industry, and with folks on the other end of the political spectrum, like Newt Gingrich and the American Conservative Union. And it was working. Then, says Jones, Trump runs and wins on this law-and-order, Blue Lives Matter platform, and he gives an inauguration speech with his American-carnage line, making it seem like hes going to unleash police and prisons everywhere.
And then the unexpected happened. Kim Kardashian, says Jones, wound up playing this indispensable role, and a lot of people have gotten furious with me, saying Im stealing the credit from African American activists who have been working on this issue for decades. And first of all, Im one of them. But I was in the Oval Office with Kim and Ivanka and Jared and the president, and I watched with my own eyes Trump confess to having tremendous fears of letting somebody out of prison and that person going and doing something terrible, and the impact that that would have on his political prospects. He was visibly nervous about it. And I watched Kim Kardashian unleash the most effective, emotionally intelligent intervention that Ive ever seen in American politics.
https://www.vogue.com/article/kim-kardashian-west-cover-may-2019
Link to tweet
mcar
(42,376 posts)Before she starts an internship? Does she have a bachelor's degree?
hlthe2b
(102,378 posts)Today, only four states California, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington allow aspiring lawyers to take the bar exam without going to law school. Instead, they are given the option to apprentice with a practicing attorney or judge. They have to apprentice for a significant amount of time though. In New York, Maine, and Wyoming, one is allowed to take the bar if he or she has spent some time in law school and some time working in an office-study situation.
mcar
(42,376 posts)Thanks.
comradebillyboy
(10,176 posts)MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)She became obscenely rich out of basically having a sex tape leaked.
That's no dummy.
Her father was also quite the capable lawyer, so she'll have come by the tendency honest.
Initech
(100,104 posts)It doesn't take a degree to do that and it looks good on your resume.
shanti
(21,675 posts)or has even attended college.
LenaBaby61
(6,979 posts)Not here in California she doesn't.
A friend told me about a guy he knew who (29 at the time) told him that if he cared to, he could read and brush up on Law at home, on the net and at his local law library, then take the bar exam and pass it IF he wanted to. My friend told me that the guy was extremely smart to the point of graduating from High School at 16 (He got 1600 on his SAT scores), and was excepted to attend several of the top universities around this country (Stanford, USC, Cal Berkley to name a few), and he taught himself to speak 5 languages (Mandarin Chinese was one of those languages). My friend said he was thinking that while he's extremely bright, he's gonna ace the Ca. Bar Exam on the strength of merely studying all things law on his off-time on the net, at home and from reading and checking books out from his local law library? Nope, he must be an insane genius Fast forward to 2 years later, and after all of the guy's various methods of 'studying' during a 2 year period, he took and PASSED the California Bar Exam in one try. He's not a practicing attorney (Been offered law an apprenticeship help, internship help etc. because he was really RAW), but as my friend said, he's a "bad ass Einstein" type of guy who enjoys his own company. Has TONS of energy & a photographic memory who should be in MENSA contributing to society. But instead, he LOVES pissing people off and astounding them because they didn't think he COULD do (Fill in the blank as to things people didn't think he could do even though a genius).
My friend changed jobs and lost touch with this guy around 5 years ago, but ran into a relative of his who said that he moved to New York and is ...
A manager @ Bloomingdale's. The guy PASSED the California Bar on his first attempt, and is a manager in the men's section at Bloomies
mcar
(42,376 posts)Thanks for sharing it, Lena. I've known many near geniuses who have taken interesting paths.
Faux pas
(14,691 posts)into college too? Sheesh on a shingle.
enid602
(8,658 posts)I think Michael Cohen got her into law school, with a recommendation from Jeanine Pirro.
sounds about right.
Shell_Seas
(3,336 posts)demmiblue
(36,898 posts)I think that she has a lot more access/influence when it comes to obtaining an apprenticeship than the average person (who may be more qualified).
nolabear
(41,991 posts)If she actually learns something and does some good then Im happy for her.
RandySF
(59,264 posts)Shes been active on the issue of criminal justice reform.
FM123
(10,054 posts)Back when my kid took the bar a few years ago (not in CA) I remember him telling me that the CA bar was considered one of the toughest bar exams and that only about half the law school grads who took it passed.
BillyBobBrilliant
(805 posts)On the Oral portion of the exam...
demmiblue
(36,898 posts)amuse bouche
(3,657 posts)I rather there be light than be a silencer
Response to amuse bouche (Reply #11)
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amuse bouche
(3,657 posts)for them being reported.I get called on for jury duty for the dumbest things.
Welcome to DU
Progressive Law
(617 posts)It's the hardest bar exam in the nation. The questions are basically of equal difficulty as those in other states. But CA's scoring/grading of the exam is insane.
BTW, the pass rate for CA bar examinees who go the apprenticeship route is something under 10%. Overall, the pass rate hovers around 40%. (Last Summer, Duke Univ Law School had a 100% passing rate for the CA Bar...the only school in the nation to accomplish that feat.)
maveric
(16,446 posts)Have you ever heard the shit that comes out of her mouth?
erpowers
(9,350 posts)I wonder if this is going to be another James Franco situation in which a celebrity makes a big deal about getting a degree, or a job, but later it comes out that they did not really put in that much work, but was given the degree/job because they were a celebrity. How does she plan to make time to learn the law and how it works?
no_hypocrisy
(46,202 posts)Not a semester!
She's not qualified to be a legal secretary, legal assistant, and/or paralegal.
Bonx
(2,075 posts)maxsolomon
(33,400 posts)I guess you don't need a bachelor's degree to get in to Law School?
I know you can take the Architect licensing exam after 7 years of employment under a licensed Architect...
no_hypocrisy
(46,202 posts)Even if she took a preparation course like Pieper, Barbri, etc., unless she's endured the Socratic method, doing legal research, KK won't be able to understand the complexities of The Law. I complained to a professor during my last semester that our law school hadn't prepared me to be a lawyer and all I might be able to do was to pass one bar exam.
She can't get away with putting out a shingle and hiring others to do the skutt work that only an attorney can do. AND she will have to be able to write cogently and argue logically.
This isn't Legally Blonde.
tulipsandroses
(5,127 posts)There are too many community activists, social justice activists for me to take her seriously. I would hope that these law firms consider giving these activists that perhaps cannot afford law school a shot too.
RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)Maybe Lori Loughlin can help her get into Harvard.
eShirl
(18,504 posts)Hope she passes the bar exam and everyone poo-pooing her goal has to eat their words.
I read an interview a couple years ago and was pleasantly surprised to find she isn't the vapid, shallow moron the family business portrays them all as. In fact, far from it. I'm not a fan of the show and didn't know much about her. She's been personally involved with many worthy causes and her heart is definitely in the right place.
Her celebrity will only bring more attention to the cause of criminal justice reform.
Go get 'em, girl!
tazkcmo
(7,302 posts)You spared what I was going to. Saved me the time ! Thanks again.
obnoxiousdrunk
(2,910 posts)llmart
(15,555 posts)Trump was worried about if the offender committed a crime after he pardoned her, it would reflect badly on him.
So.....once again it's all about him.
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)All the other U.S. lawyers are engaged in defending tRumpie's associates. We're running out of attorneys!
LisaM
(27,839 posts)I don't know if she'll see it through to the end, but I don't find it all that far fetched, on some level.
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)Studying and then taking a licensure exam isn't the same as going through law school, where, undoubtedly, other learning occurs.
Would you hire a doctor that passed the board exam, but had never performed a physical on person?
miyazaki
(2,251 posts)to clean up the dog crap in her house because she didn't know what to do.