Kim Kardashian studying law, plans to take bar exam in 3 years

Kim Kardashian has decided to pivot careers from reality TV star to lawyer.

In an interview with Vogue, the mother of three revealed that she’s been studying to become a lawyer and decided last summer to begin a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco, with hopes to take the bar exam in 2022.

“I had to think long and hard about this,” Kardashian said of her decision to switch careers.

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California is one of the four states in the United States that allows prospective lawyers to do apprenticeships instead of attending law school. There are certain things Kardashian must do during her four-year apprenticeship.

Kardashian and her supervising attorney need to submit semi-annual progress reports to the California Bar Association, and she needs to take (and pass) the First-Year Law Student’s Exam.

She also needs to be studying law at the firm during regular business hours for a minimum of 18 hours each week for at least 48 weeks to receive credit for one year of study.

Following her four-year apprenticeship, Kardashian needs to take (and pass) the bar and get a positive moral character determination. She will also need to pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination.

The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star said the choice to make the career change came from “seeing a really good result” with Alice Marie Johnson.

WATCH: Alice Johnson visited by Kim Kardashian after life sentence commuted by Donald Trump

1:15 Alice Johnson visited by Kim Kardashian West after life sentence commuted by Donald Trump

In June 2018, Kardashian successfully pushed U.S. President Donald Trump to grant a pardon for Johnson, and the first-time non-violent drug offender was officially granted clemency. The 63-year-old grandmother had been in an Alabama prison for more than 21 years and was sentenced to life without the chance of parole.

Kardashian’s lawyer, Shawn Holley, confirmed the move by Trump and said that Johnson would be free to leave prison.

In legal terms, a commutation is the substitution of a lesser penalty for the sentence given. The punishment can be lessened in severity or duration, or both. A pardon, on the other hand, is a complete absolution of guilt.

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Kardashian visited with Trump on May 30, 2018 to discuss prison reform overall but focused specifically on Johnson’s case.

Kardashian returned to the White House last September for a meeting with senior aides as part of the administration’s efforts on criminal justice reform.

After Johnson was released from prison the First Step Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump in December.

WATCH: Trump celebrates bipartisan effort that passed the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill

1:54 Trump celebrates bipartisan effort that passed The First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill

“The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency, and I’m sitting in the Roosevelt Room with 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,'” Kardashian said.

She continued: “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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Kardashian is aware that she’ll probably receive a lot of criticism for her decision.

“I don’t pay attention to that anymore,” she said. “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.”

“I never in a million years thought we would get to the point of getting laws passed. That was really a turning point for me,” Kardashian said.

The 38-year-old reality TV star revealed that she’s had an interest in law for a long time. Her interest comes from her father, the late Robert Kardashian, who was an attorney and helped defend his friend O.J. Simpson during his infamous murder trial in 1994.

“On the weekends, they used our home as an office with Johnnie Cochran and Bob Shapiro,” Kardashian 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.”

—With files from the Associated Press