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Kim Kardashian West studying to become criminal justice lawyer

The reality star is doing an apprenticeship with a San Francisco-based law office since last year.
The reality star is doing an apprenticeship with a San Francisco-based law office since last year. The reality star is doing an apprenticeship with a San Francisco-based law office since last year.

Kim Kardashian West has revealed she is studying to become a criminal justice lawyer and is planning to take her exams in 2022.

The reality star began a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco last summer, around the time she played a role in the release last summer of prisoner Alice Marie Johnson.

The 63-year-old grandmother had been in an Alabama prison on a non-violent drug charge since 1996 and Kardashian West visited US President Donald Trump in the White House to argue her case.

The president eventually granted Johnson clemency.

Discussing her decision to venture into a law career, she told US Vogue: “I had to think long and hard about this.

“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, 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. 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.”

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@KimKardashian is used to being underestimated. If the media mogul/beauty entrepreneur/soon-to-be mother of four’s next act—studying law—seems unlikely, perhaps it shouldn’t. "This is the daughter of an accomplished attorney and the mother of three black kids who is using her full power to make a difference on a tough issue and is shockingly good at it," says @CNN commentator and activist @vanjones68. Jones brings up the Elle Woods character from @legallyblondemovies as perhaps the only archetype we have in the culture through which to understand such an unlikely turn of events. “But she’s so much deeper than that,” he says, “because the gravity of the issues she’s taking on is so tragic and all-pervasive. I think she’s going to be a singular person in American life.” In many demonstrable ways—for better or worse—@KimKardashian already is. But if she were to pass the bar, it would be the most surprising rebranding since @Barbie got woke, a case to be studied at @harvardhbs for years to come. (Indeed, she has been invited to speak at Harvard later this year “on branding and media.”) “I love to be put in a situation where I can have a conversation with someone who might not be inclined to think much of me, because I can guarantee they will have a different opinion and understand what’s important to me after they’ve met me,” @KimKardashian says. Tap the link in our bio to read the full May cover story. Photographed by @mikaeljansson, styled by @tonnegood, written by @jonathanvanmeter, Vogue, May 2019.

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Kardashian West’s interest in the law will see her follow in the footsteps of her father Robert Kardashian, who was a member of OJ Simpson’s defence team.

She said: “On the weekends they used our home as an office, with Johnnie Cochran and Bob Shapiro.

“My dad had a library, and when you pushed on this wall there was this whole hidden closet room, with all of his OJ evidence books. On weekends I would always snoop and look through. I was really nosy about the forensics.”

She is now being mentored by two lawyers, Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney, who are helping her log her required 18 hours of weekly supervised study.

Over the summer she will take what is known as the “baby bar” administered by the state of California and if she passes she will be allowed to continue for three more years of study.

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I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long, many said it would never come. Words cannot begin to express how much of an honor it is to have my first solo US cover of @VogueMagazine. I remember as a little girl flipping through my mom’s subscription each month and dreaming of one day gracing the cover of this iconic magazine. Thank you to the incredible Anna Wintour for your support as always, it means the world to me. @Tonnegood, @Mikaeljansson and the glam team were an absolute dream to work with. I’m so incredibly grateful to writer @Jonathanvanmeter for illustrating a glimpse into my life in a way that I don’t think has ever been done –  from juggling family, my businesses and pursuing a law degree with such care and seriousness. Special thank you to my husband Kanye for speaking into existence that one day I would grace the cover of Vogue when everyone told me to be “more realistic.” #dreamsdocometrue #speakitintoexistence #voguemagazine Photographer: Mikael Jansson @mikaeljansson Stylist: Tonne Goodman @tonnegood Makeup: Hannah Murray @hannah_murray1 Hair headpieces: Shay Ashual @shayashual Cover Look: Chanel top @chanelofficial; Irene Neuwirth necklace @ireneneuwirth. Vogue Team @sergiokletnoy & @jilldemling

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She said; “First year of law school, you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts.

“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.”