Kim Kardashian West is doing some good. Is she donating some of her riches to charity? Or is she announcing a new product for her beauty brand? Uh, no. She’s doing something better. Kim is doing a four-year law apprenticeship to become a lawyer.
In her cover story for Vogue’s May issue, Kim reveals that she’s been studying law and doing apprenticeship since summer of last year with the intention of taking the bar exam in 2022. Her decision to take this path isn’t surprising at all. Her father Robert Kardashian was a lawyer who handled the case of OJ Simpson, which was dramatized in The People vs. O.J. Simpson. In fact, even when she was younger, she already showed interest in law.
“My dad had a library, and when you pushed on this wall there was this whole hidden closet room, with all of his O.J. evidence books. On weekends I would always snoop and look through. I was really nosy about the forensics,” Kim tells Vogue.
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Before she even announced that she’s pursuing law apprenticeship, Kim was instrumental in lobbying for the release of Alice Marie Johnson. Alice was given a life sentence for a nonviolent drug crime in 1996. Kim, as well as CNN commentator and activist Van Jones, met with President Donald Trump to lobby for Alice. But even before her meeting with Trump, Kim has been working with Van and Jessica Jackson, the co-founders of the initiative #cut50. Her involvement with the cause eventually led to her decision of pursuing law.
“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 says.
Kim wasn’t able to finish school, so how come she’s pursuing law? Well, that’s one of the perks of being a California girl. In California and other four U.S. states, apprenticeship is an alternative way of qualifying for bar exam.
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If you think Kim is that whiny entitled socialite who has no talent, she’s here to prove you wrong. In her cover story, she even boasted a score of 100 for her first test in criminal law. “To me, torts is the most confusing, contracts the most boring, and crim law I can do in my sleep, she says. “Super easy for me. The reading is what really gets me. It’s so time-consuming. The concepts I grasp in two seconds.”
Her husband Kanye West is also in full support of Kim. “She’s always had it in her,” he tells Vogue. And Van is also in awe of Kim’s capabilities. “So for people who have fallen for this media caricature of the party girl from ten years ago who hangs out with Paris Hilton? 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.”
Yup, we might have thought of Kim as this shallow woman who cried because of her lost earrings in Bora Bora—but who wouldn’t cry when you lose something expensive like that? Yes, as Kourtney says, there are people suffering. Kim knows that, and by 2022, she’s probably ready to defend them in court.