You can say a lot of things about Kim Kardashian West, but you can't say she's not motivated. The reality star, business woman, and mom of three just revealed that her next career plan is to become a lawyer, just like her late father Robert Kardashian, who famously defended O.J. Simpson.
"On the weekends they used our home as an office, with Johnnie Cochran and Bob Shapiro," Kardashian West recalled. "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."
Since then, she's always been interested in law, and when she worked with Donald Trump to commute the life sentence of Alice Maria Johnson, a nonviolent drug offender, Kardashian West loved seeing the "really good result" and decided to take the leap. Because of the work that Kardashian West did with #cut50, a national bipartisan advocacy group on criminal-justice reform, Johnson was freed from prison, and a new criminal-justice reform law was signed by Trump in December.
"I never in a million years thought we would get to the point of getting laws passed," she told Vogue. "That was really a turning point for me."
Kardashian West will be the first to admit, though, that when she was meeting with the president, she was out of her depths.
"The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency," she recalled. "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, s"”. I need to know more."
Her inexperience with the law didn't stop her from saying her piece, but the reality star admitted she felt an urge to do more when she saw what the work that her lawyers and team were doing.
"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," she noted. "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."
Of course, Kardashian West never finished college, so how will she be able to take the bar exam? Well, in California, you can take a path to the bar which is referred to as "reading the law," which is where you apprentice with a practicing lawyer or judge. Kardashian West is on her way to completing this apprenticeship, beginning a four-year apprenticeship at a San Francisco-based law firm, according to TMZ.
The plan is for Kardashian West to take what's known as the "baby bar" this summer, which is administered by the state, and if she passes then she'll be allowed to continue three more years of studying.
"First year of law school, you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts," Kardashian West told Vogue. "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 busy mom isn't concerned about the actual content of her studies, but rather the method.
"The reading is what really gets me," she admitted. "It's so time-consuming. The concepts I grasp in two seconds."
As for how people will react to her decision to become a lawyer, Kardshian West isn't concerned.
"I don't pay attention to that anymore," she pointed out. "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."
Jessica Jackson, an attorney and co-founder of #cut50, is the one who really got the idea rolling for Kardashian West.
"She was spending so much time on this," said Jackson, "and she would call me at weird hours with questions, and finally I was like, "˜Gosh, you're helping us with commutations; you're legitimately helpful on motions and stuff; why don't you just become a lawyer?'"
Jackson also said something that might surprise people, which is that Kardashian West's logical mind makes her a great fit with criminal law.
"With law you have to go through an entire analysis in a language that is so unnatural, and she was able to do that from the very beginning. She has a very calm, very logical way of thinking. She'll probably go into criminal law. I don't know if we'll see her in courtrooms..." Jackson joked.
Kris Jenner, Kardashian West's mom, admitted that she "did not see this coming," but isn't that surprise because of her daughter's passion.
"What didn't surprise me was the way she embraced Miss Alice and how she was so hopeful for that outcome," she said. "When you find something that you're that passionate about, it's not difficult; you don't have to think about it "” it just happens."
I can't really knock Kardashian West for this career change. If it's something she's passionate about, and something she's willing to put in the work for, then more power to her. I'm just wondering how long she'll be able to stick it out.
[H/T: Vogue]
