Most people who fail the bar exam go quiet, regroup, and try again in the spring. Kim Kardashian put hers in a commercial, handed the setup to Gloria Allred, and sold you an energy drink with it.
The reality star / SKIMS mogul / criminal justice crusader / aspiring esquire dropped the first big campaign for UPDATE — the caffeine-free, paraxanthine-powered energy drink she co-founded — and it is going viral because she found the one thing to do with a failed bar exam that the rest of us never will: sell it. The spot opens with Kim at a mock press conference, fielding questions about how she does it all, before peeling off a pair of oversized sunglasses to reveal a studious little pair of academic frames underneath, a wink at the years of speculation about her face that I will let you enjoy without further comment. Then, in a museum bit poking fun at her own out-of-touch faux-pas where she’s displayed in a glass case grinding through a to-do list while gallery-goers gawk, women’s-rights attorney Gloria Allred materializes to ask the question that has haunted her since 2018: did she ever actually pass the bar?
She responds, “No, I didn’t pass the bar. I raised it.”
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May all bar exam failees meet their results with that much grace. Of course, it is somewhat easier to reframe a failing score as a marketing flex when you have a billion dollars, no law school loans, and a nationwide Walmart distribution deal instead of a study group. But we take our serenity where we can find it.
Kim Kardashian’s legal education exploits have launched a thousand Above the Law posts, from back when Kanye was informing an “Extra” reporter that “my wife is in law school now” and we had to gently explain that no, she was not. She confirmed the plan for real in 2019, choosing the notoriously brutal apprenticeship route because, not having an undergraduate degree, the traditional law school path was closed to her.
What followed was the most thoroughly documented legal education in American history. She shared a criminal law issue-spotter starring Justin Bieber as a criminal mastermind. She announced she wanted to specialize in criminal law and open her own firm. She failed the baby bar three times before passing on the fourth, and somehow made the failures more endearing than the win — she credited the ordeal with strengthening her bond with daughter North. She dreamed aloud about that law firm again. She finally “graduated” from “law school”, sat for the actual California bar in July 2025, and came up short in November.
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That last one produced the most relatable thing she has ever posted: a full montage of handwritten flashcards, panic spirals, and championship-grade ugly crying. Then, in May, Page Six reported she’s punting the retake until at least 2027, citing a filming schedule the California bar has never once cared about.
Here’s the thing the campaign gets right, and the reason the joke lands instead of curdling: Kim Kardashian does not need the bar exam. She never really did.
Before she’d finished her first year of “law school,” she’d already convinced the Trump White House to grant Alice Marie Johnson clemency and helped push the First Step Act across the finish line, putting aside her personal feelings about the president to get the bill signed. She made a documentary about her inmate-justice work. She advocated to halt Oklahoma’s execution of Julius Jones amid serious innocence evidence. She returned to the White House for a clemency roundtable on nonviolent drug offenses. As we’ve argued before, her access-to-justice work doesn’t need one more lawyer, it needs a billionaire willing to bankroll a bunch of them, which is exactly what she already is.
So chalk up the ledger. Innocence and clemency advocacy that has changed actual lives. A reality empire still generating actual seasons. A stack of business ventures, of which UPDATE is merely the latest. Four kids: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm. And, as of this spring, a highly public romance with Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time [EIGHT-time, iykyk] world champion and undisputed F1 GOAT, who blew her a kiss from the Monaco Grand Prix podium.
Somewhere in that schedule, she still intends to pass the bar. Maybe in 2027. Maybe the year after. The woman has demonstrated a nearly supernatural tolerance for retakes, and unlike the rest of us, she gets to reframe each one as content.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1