In 2019, Kim Kardashian covered Vogue and she gave a lengthy, interesting interview to the magazine. The big subject of the piece was about Kim’s interest in the law, and her announcement that she is studying the law and doing a rich-woman version of “law school.” She has quizzes and tests and she has tutors and more. I tend to believe that Kim thought she could easily breeze through her law studies and end up passing the bar in a few years. It’s been more complicated than that, especially with the pandemic. She took the California “baby bar” and flunked it a few times, and she hasn’t mentioned her law studies in months. Now she covers the WSJ. Magazine “Innovators” issue, and she ended up talking about her still-ongoing law studies. She also talks about Skims, which is the reason she’s been named one of the Innovators of the Year: Skims is a billion-dollar company and it’s Kim’s most successful business venture of all time. Some highlights from this WSJ. Magazine piece:
The Fendi x Skims collaboration launches November 9: It is a complete ready-to-wear collection, including form-fitting tops and dresses starting at $950, $1,100 leggings and a $2,950 puffer jacket, as well as Fendi x Skims–logo-printed underwear, shapewear and hosiery. There is a range of swimsuits, from a barely-there bikini to sporty one-pieces and surf tops, all in a mash-up print of the labels’ logos. A $4,200 leather dress with wraps crisscrossing the bosom comes in eight muted shades, from beige to earthy brown.
Expanding her empire & consolidating: “I learned a lot from Skims, to be honest with you,” she says. “I hope so,” she replies when asked if she intends to develop a broad corporate enterprise. “But I think of it more on the day-to-day. I’m just like, this is my vision. This is what I want to get done. If it turns into this huge beauty conglomerate? Oh, my God; that’s so amazing! Obviously, it’s everyone’s goal. You want it to be as amazing and huge as possible.”
She’s a non-partier and a control freak: “I have never liked drunk people. I never like to be out of control. I never like to not know what’s going on.” (“I didn’t go [away] to college because of [the partying],” she says.)
Her law studies: She studies law about four hours a day in an apprenticeship program she hopes will lead to a license to practice law. She keeps an office close to her Calabasas home. “My days are completely micromanaged to the minute. In order to get away from the kids, I will go into my office at my house and study. And then working on beauty and rebranding and Skims, constantly, I’m always in fittings and fabric meetings. My days are pretty full…. And that’s it. I love to be home; I love my weekends at home.”
Is she a workaholic? “I know, I know, I am. I get a lot of my work ethic from my dad.”
Kanye’s advice: “He expressed that there were too many branding situations. He’s always super simple. He has a piece of Skims himself and gives [the team] inspiration but also information. I think he enjoys the process. Kanye will always be the most inspirational person to me.”
Big dreams: “I really wanted to condense my beauty brands. I wanted one place, one website, where everything can live…. I want to really launch an entirely new beauty brand. I learned so much that I’m excited [to put out] a brand that has all the new information that I know. I feel like it’s going to be my baby, I’ll have my beauty brand and Skims. I can really nourish it and flourish it more if it [were] all condensed into one.”
On taking over from Kris Jenner: “If there’s a deal, it’s always my mom, me and our attorney talking it over,” Kardashian West says. People close to the family expect her to take the reins when Kris, 66, one day retires. “We’ve talked about it. I would assemble a team of people to take over. I hope it doesn’t happen for a really long time, because I’m really busy.”
More on her law studies: “We talked about it for sure when I was in college, but I wasn’t that serious,” she says. She recently failed some introductory bar exams and concedes that she has a lot of work in front of her: “I do have a ways to go. Hopefully one day I can start a law firm where we can help people pro bono and hire people who were formerly incarcerated. I don’t see me floating on a yacht,” she says, noting that her grandmother retired in her early 80s. “I think I’ll always feel good when I’m working.”
Kim has big dreams for business and for her would-be career as a lawyer. I actually think it’s cool that Kim even dreams of passing the bar and actually setting up a pro bono law firm, but her attention is too divided now. When it comes down to it, her businesses and her kids are her priority and reading the law is a distant third. Does she just not want to quit? Hm. I did find the business stuff fascinating, and she really has exploited a huge gap in the shapewear/loungewear market. Skims is worth $1.6 billion on paper, and personally, I think Skims is going to be her “legacy” business.
Covers & IG courtesy of WSJ. Magazine.
Remember when she was going to call Skims Kimono? One of the best decisions she made was to listen to people’s complaints about the name.
I think she always planned for there to be complaints and therefore always planned to ‘listen’ and have her new name ready and waiting, all the while getting huge publicity for her brand new product
Bingo ! This family gets most of their publicity from negative press/backlash.
I had not thought of that angle! Pretty smart.
I am surprised she never attributed her work ethic to her mom.
Because she was a SAHM for most of her childhood. She only started working after marrying Bruce.
Yikes. SAHMs work their butts off, especially when they have husbands who are doing their work 80 hours/week. I doubt Kris was working any less than him. I 100% disagree with what these people have created and find them repugnant, but the idea that Kris wasn’t working during those years is just wrong.
+1 Josephine – Kris has been working hard as hell all along, equally as a SAHM and as her later manager/mogul role.
I may not like or agree with her actions, but Kris K’s work ethic and constant motivation/determination is impressive to me, and is the reason that family is so entrepreneurial and successful today.
@Josephine SAHM work very hard I’m just not sure kris is one of them. She appeared more as a “lady who lunches” not a lady cleaning bathrooms between her kids naps in my opinion.
I know literally nothing about Kris J’s life prior to the Kardashian family’s rise to fame. Maybe she was a lady who lunched, or maybe she was a real SAHM (which is hard work). I honestly don’t know. But as much as I find this family obnoxious and soooo thirsty, Kris J really does seem to work her a$$ off for this brand, and she’s more than demonstrated her sklls in business and public relations. I have to give credit where it’s due. Especially impressive given that, to my knowledge, she had o formal training. She took a family of some minimally talented, relatively basic kids, a sex tape, some relatively weak “connections,” and turned it all into a gd empire. So … hats off, I guess?
SAHM’s work a lot, but they aren’t paying mortgages and school tuition…So her father’s work translated into figures, something tangible. That’s something different. I think Kim would likely view her mother’s work now differently since she’s making money moves.
Kinda funny, heheh. I do like that she has a work ethic, though. So many rich people lack one. I like that she’s not ashamed of it at all, that she’ll happily reveal how much discipline it takes. That’s the attitude I appreciate…not this god-awful British ‘look down your nose at the lowly middle class ethic’ attitude.
She’s sure patting herself on the back for being such a busy and industrious person. I think it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors, with other people doing the heavy lifting.
She’s an “innovator” because she revived spanx which revived the girdle??!!??
I can’t believe I’m saying this but I absolutely love these pictures.
Same, Lucia! I surprised myself liking these pics… that first one of her profile on the cover is a great photo of her- and we’ve been SO saturated with photos of Kim that I didn’t think I’d care about another. They did a good job on this shoot though.
Skims makes sense because she is known for her body.
All that facial surgery and she still isn’t known for her face (like Rhiannah is), despite thinking she is. She should leave beauty to her sister and focus on Skims and law. That’s a good legacy. Not pushing more creams.
I love the pictures too, Lucia. Kim’s really an interesting person, I think.
She doesn’t need a law license to start a non-profit that helps folks who can’t afford it get legal representation. That would be a better use of her time. As someone who spend 3 years in law school, it’s a ton of work and even then, the bar is really difficult. This is more about her vanity which, I know, isn’t at all shocking.
Was going to say the same thing. Or set up a grant program that benefits existing organizations that do that. She can even put her name on it so the released inmates can still give her credit for setting them free. She is not putting in the effort necessary to study law. The only way that woman is getting a law license is if she bribes someone.
Agreed. And of late she’s been pushing a false narrative about college. When did this woman go to college?! Law school is tough even for someone who obtained their undergraduate degree. Learning to learn is an actual thing. One needs real study skills, unless you’re a full on “Good Will Hunting” genius.
Agreed. You don’t have to be a genius to pass the bar, but you do have to study like a maniac. You just don’t pick up a law degree on your way to somewhere else; she does not have the time that is necessary to actual succeed at this.
Non-lawyers CANNOT have an ownership interest in a law firm…
True, but they can donate to organizations that provide legal services
I honestly like that she wants to get the degree before doing this, and to be able to have a fuller understanding of the work that would happen in an organization like that. She can obviously use her money for other philanthropy in the meantime, but we should never shame someone for trying to get an education.
What degree? She’s not earning a Law Degree.
She’s not getting an education. She doesn’t even have a Bachelor’s degree. I don’t think it’s shaming to point that out. The lawyers I know are well educated and have a broad base of knowledge to draw from, thanks to their education. That’s what I want in an attorney.
I agree, there are a lot of well established, well organized groups doing this already that she could support.
@Me Exactly. Kim is not getting a law degree, nor is she in law school. She is simply getting tutored to pass the bar, which is fine, but she really needs to stop selling this as if she about graduate with a degree or something. There is nothing stopping Kim from establishing a grant like you all have mentioned already, which would have immediate impact and won’t have to wait until she passes the bar.
Only coming to say when I saw the header pic with her hands above her head lmao. In ecstasy she is, fantasizing all of the world is buying her bullsh*t. She is the very definition of greed, conspicuous consumption and body dysmorphia. The latter is a mental health disorder. Wish she and her family would get help asap and stfu. The damage they’ve caused… ugh. To their own children also.
All of this. Her Republican leanings rub me the wrong way too
+1
I can’t get past the idea of calling someone selling $1000 leggings an innovator.
I’m not into shape wear so I haven’t tried skims. I might try the cotton line someday when I want new leggings. *But* she makes durable shapewear in a variety of styles so you can find a skims item to wear under anything. So you don’t need to worry about a skirt riding up or a crop top riding & your shapewear etc… Her sizing goes up to a 5xl. And there’s different tones instead of the same sad beige which doesn’t suit everyone.
She didn’t invent shapewear, inclusive colour tones or plus sized clothes. But she coupled new designs with those concepts. So she filled a gap in the market. While she may not be innovative she’s still an industry in shapewear. And that pairs well with her love of tight clothes so there’s built in marketing based on previous branding.
If Kim was not famous and came out with Skims, they wouldn’t be nearly as successful as they are. Her company is doing well because of the following she already has. This goes for most celeb businesses. She has offered nothing new to shapewear. It’s all just smoke and mirrors. As a non-famous person, she’d have a hard time selling her shapewear because there are so many on the market as is. Just like Kylie’s lip kits and Kendall’s Tequilla. It’s the name behind the brand that makes it popular.
Successful, sure, innovative, no.
Harsh post: The law stuff drives me nuts. I think it is great she wants to help others but by her own admission in this article she is not following the rules of “reading the law”. To do so you must spend 18 hours a week IN THE LAW Office of the sponsoring attorney for FOUR YEARS before sitting for the baby bar. She registered with the CA bar to read the law in December of 2018. So in math world you can see she is allowed to cut corners. She mentions college but she didn’t go to college. She may have take classes but there is a great deal of embellishment in this article. (By the way such behavior can have you barred from admission to the CA bar)
She has a great deal of money. She CAN open a firm & hire real law school educated attorneys & help people. Which is a truly noble cause & she would get the attention she seems to be seeking that way. Instead she uses the law as a vanity project . She can do what she wishes but this seems more like, “look at me I is smart”. She turned a sex tape into an amazing entrepreneurial career. She is patient zero for being famous with little to no talent. I guess she feels inadequate but then it explains her LOOK AT MEEEEE persona.
All of this.
Lol, exactly.
Thank you. She’s a dilettante who is into self promotion above all else. I find everything about her and her family repugnant and refuse to buy into their nonsense.
This law school stuff just cracks me up. My brother and a few friends went to highly competitive law schools. One nearly had a nervous breakdown from the stress. Another quit law after about 10 years because the stress was causing her to lose her hair. I mean, good for Kim if she wants to start a non profit legal aid firm, but come on. She isnt fooling anyone into thinking she is a serious student of law.
I’ve met really dumb lawyers. Just read the local news of any small rural US town and see how many offensively incompetent judges/prosecutors are practicing and ruining the lives of tons of people.
I think having a simple brain helps some people absorb lots of material. No neuroses or pretense. And work ethic generally matters more than intelligence. So I don’t think it’s impossible for her to pass one day, if she ever decides to focus on it for an extended period. I’m not sure why everyone acts like it’s so farfetched, she can afford every kind of tutor.
sorry double comment
She can’t just open a law firm though. Most states (except for like, Arizona) bar lawyers from sharing legal fees with nonlawyers and forbid law firms from having nonlawyer owners or officers.
But she could donate and support Legal Aid, Raices, Innocence Project, or any number of existing places already offering low cost or no cost legal services, if this is something she’s passionate about.
Could she open a non profit that employs lawyers? That may be a loophole?
Yeah, right, sure, Marsha!! She could be paying for pro bono right now!!!
She does. She works with the innocence project and has paid peoples legal bills. She could easily donate more no doubt
Her products could be the next best thing since sliced bread but I still would never buy anything associated w/Kim or her family.
I see why others are pointing out that she doesn’t need a law degree to set up a pro bono law firm. She could find excellent lawyers, fundraise with celebrity galas and work with organisations like “All of Us or None”. I think that something along those lines might help her achieve her dream sooner then becoming a lawyer would. Especially given how time intensive learning the law is.
However, I wonder if her desire to be a lawyer partially stems from her love of her dad. It might be vanity too. It’s clear she probably doesn’t have the time to manage two businesses and get a law degree. Plus pursuing higher education is pretty atypical for a reality tv star with her level of fame. So it just makes me wonder if studying the law and/or the idea of being a lawyer helps her feel closer to her father.
@Marcel, ITA. For a while I’ve suspected the reason she’s kept going is the connection to her father. If it was pure vanity, she would’ve killed and buried the storyline (and any questions about it) after her first/second bar failures.
But the thing is Kim didn’t grow up watching her did be a lawyer. He had long given up his law license in order to pursue a business. He only got his license re-instated to help OJ during his trial. When he died, his kids inherited the business (music related I believe). They sold the business and split the money.
Also, Kim has failed the baby bar 3 times now. She’s only being given a 4th chance because of the pandemic. In normal times, the third failure would have been it for her. She also was able to write the baby bar in the comfort of her own home, which also wouldn’t be allowed had it not been for the pandemic.
Okay in reading comments from lawyers she can’t have ownership in a law firm without a degree. Mass incarceration is a human rights issue though so she could work with organisations like “All of Us or None”. And use her business skills to set up an employment & training for former inmates. Because unemployment & poverty is a major factor when it comes to former inmates being sent back to prison again.
Yeah @curiouscole I agree! If it was just vanity than she wouldn’t still be pursuing it. I really hope she finds other avenues to support inmates if she doesn’t pass the bar. At this point in the US, inmates are doing indentured servitude and making products I probably use on the daily. They can’t vote and thus it’s harder for them to advocates for themselves by pushing for policy changes. And inmates are disproportionately people of colour because it all ties back to systematic racism & capitalism.
I agree I think she didn’t realize how hard law would be if you’re only dedicating yourself part time to it. There is so much memorizing of tiny minutiae and details – also, you can only fail the baby bar 3 times if you want to skip law school. She’s failed it twice now so maybe she’s stopped trying or is taking a lot more time to study the 3rd time.
To those who are saying she can “open an office” without being an attorney…non-lawyers CANNOT have an ownership interest in a law firm. So there’s that.
But non-lawyers can give donations to organizations that provide free legal services.
In CA if the firm is solely practicing pro Bono, which is what she stated in the article, you can. She could also set up a legal defense fund.
Correct. Here’s the California bar rule that prohibits it.
https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/Conduct-Discipline/Rules/Rules-of-Professional-Conduct/Previous-Rules/Rule-1-310
So, just set up a foundation to help people pay legal bills and stop talking about it , “becoming a lawyer” to draw attention to yourself and show everyone how smart you are. If you’re serious stop talking and do it. (Insert eye roll here).
“When she was in college”. You mean community college…the one you dropped out of? Please Kim just stop the lies. Does anyone really believe she spends all day working? She has people do everything for her. Even her businesses are run by other people. Her name is just slapped on everything. The only thing I truly believe she puts any energy into is her social media.
Okay, for everyone saying she can open a law firm, she CANNOT as many others have pointed out. Much like doctors, lawyers and their licenses are heavily regulated by the State Bar and no, you can not have anything to do with the practice of law or a law practice unless you’re a licensed attorney in good standing with a trust account.
Next, lawyer of 12 years here, and Kim’s casual interest in the law is vapid and semi insulting. I say casual because “studying” for four hours day does not make a lawyer. It’s four years of straight A’s in college, Dean’s list, Chancellor’s List, Princeton Review, high LSAT scores then three years of GRUELING law school exams, trial advocacy, moot court, papers (and more papers and more papers) THEN the bar– OHH the bar, which took 8-10 hours of studying a day for FOUR MONTHS to pass a series of exams that took quite literally TWENTY SEVEN HOURS (yes- 9 hours a day over 3 days) THENNNNNNN my practice over the past 12 years, with ~2000 billable hours a year of hearings, motions, brief writing, writs, appeals, trial prep, depositions, reports to the client and so on and so on and so on.
In summary, Kim either needs to get more serious about being a lawyer, or just STFU about it. And no, I don’t think her interest in the law is commendable. Her entire existence is vain, at a minimum she SHOULD have a mild interest in something besides herself.
La Fin.
As the wife of a lawyer, and the mother of two lawyers, I support this statement.
Thank you. My husband and I have a lawyer doing some some complicated legal matters for us and I’m grateful that he has the education, smarts and experience to handle it. Even if Kim somehow passed the bar, who would trust her with their cases? I sure wouldn’t.
This. My only thought in reading that was to laugh and think school’s hard ain’t it? I absolutely hated college law, all the cals, trig and analytical geo. HATED IT. Oh and astronomy (which utilizes all that ridiculous math lol). Astronomy hurt too cuz I really wanted it, but nope. Too insane.
Kim might not be able to open a law firm, but if she’s actually inspired to help poor people find legal representation, she could either start a foundation or champion one of the existing organizations that already work in that area. I’m sure there are some who would be glad for a wealthy, high profile patron.
A few years ago I was on a girls trip to Las Vegas. Four of us were walking when we were stopped by a guy with a great line of bs. He almost hooked us into playing his trivia game when someone asked what the prizes were. The answer: gift certificates of various values at The Kardashian Shop! We all let out a simultaneous ewww and said no thanks.
While I respect her ideas about criminal justice reform and the need for more pro bono work, I side-eye her approach to her law studies. And I say this as someone who has been an attorney for 16 years now. Studying the law is simply not something you can half-ass. It takes your whole attention and focus. There’s a reason why 1st year students are forbidden from working and told they have to do nothing but study law full time. Full time law studies is pretty much every day, all day, for 3 years and you don’t get your summers off. That’s when you clerk or take summer clinicals. And then you study for 3 months, 8 hours a day for the bar exam. And even with that rigid study schedule, only 65% in my jurisdiction passed. She seems to have way too much on her plate and I think she seriously underestimated how much work and how difficult it really is to become a lawyer. And you need to take it seriously for f*&ks sake! Like medicine, you are often holding someone’s life and/or liberty in your hands. If she’s serious about this, she needs to sit down and eliminate, at least for the next couple of years, almost everything else she has going on and focus on the law. Otherwise she’s just pretending and frankly I find that insulting because I love the law and I take it and the practice of it very seriously!
And most law schools have a 50% dropout rate that first year. They tell you that too.
Another attorney here. I agree with everything that my fellow JD’s have said. Because of the Socratic Method where profs don’t lecture but instead ask questions, you have to be prepared every day or you’ll get roasted. Because of the sheer volume if you fall behind in your daily homework you’re screwed. I knew people who wore clothes the color of the furniture in an effort to avoid being called on. I never had anything beyond one sip of coffee (too bitter for me) prior to law school. That changed first semester of first year.
I went to a Seven Sisters all women college. It was intellectually rigorous but the environment was very supportive. Law school and the cutthroat competitiveness was a huge shock.
So the woman who sells the free clothes she gets is going to do pro bono work? I don’t believe it. The Kardashians are not charitable so I find this very hard to believe.
That’s something that always bothered me about them. They get free clothes and then sell them on-line for profit, claiming the money will go to charity. The fine print shows only 10% is actually going to charity. Yet here I am, donating my clothes for free. Go figure.
Lmao, good luck. She’s an airheaded dilettante.
There are nonprofits already doing what she is suggesting, but they reach far deeper into the community than a law firm would – offering free legal services for women needing to leave unhealthy marriages, refugees, etc. the best part is they can connect clients to other supportive services. There is a serious capacity problem – I wish she would maybe focus on a scholarship program or even just lifting up the organizations currently doing this work through promotion, fundraising through her wealthy friends, etc.
The Kardashians/Jenners have so much in common with Trump it’s not even funny. Last month the WSJ published a letter from Trump where he ranted about how he won the 2020 election and now today the luxury magazine from WSJ releases a feature on Kim in which they name her Innovator of the year? Kim was named innovator of the year because her mother paid for the title. Notice how when the interviewer asks Kim direct questions about her company, she doesn’t know how to answer the questions? She gave an interview about her company and didn’t actually say anything about it. Kim isn’t running the company, Kris is.
Is Skims really a successful and billion-dollar company? It’s hype created by Kris. So the press is going to completely ignore how Kris gave Forbes falsified documents regarding Kylie’s billionaire status and had a negative review of Kylie’s make-up products changed? Why is the press always falling for Kris’ cons? Why would anyone trust WSJ magazine when just last month the WSJ was assisting Trump spread more election lies?
She spends 4 hours a day studying? That doesn’t sound right because people say that they spend 8-10 hours studying and that they do it between jobs, classes, and etc… and without the assistance of nannies, personal chefs, and assistants. Why does the press keep allowing Kim to tell lies about how much time she spends studying? According to her staged photo-ops, tweets, and selfies Kim doesn’t spend any time studying. Someone should tell her that taking photos of new books and notes isn’t studying. Maybe she said 4 hours because that’s how long it takes to do her hair and make-up for the studying photos?
What stands out about the feature from is all the unhealthy things Kim has done to her body and how much they photoshopped her photos to make her appear flawless. What the press should be focusing on is how the Kardashian/Jenners contribute to negative body image in teens and young women.
“I didn’t go [away] to college because of [the partying],” she says
This is the dumbest comment she’s made in a few days. College is for studying and learning, not partying! She skipped college because she was a rich, vain, ignorant child, not because there is something inherently frivolous or wasteful about college.
As for partying, she said herself she was on drugs when she made her sex tape. So she did party hard sometimes. I’m not judging her for the drugs or sex tape, just pointing out she’s contradicting herself.
You can’t believe a damn thing that comes out of her mouth.
I actually did laugh out loud on that remark. Somehow I don’t think the “partying” was what kept you out of college, Kim.
@ Emma : so true !
What was she doing in every picture of her with Paris Hilton, nuclear fission ? Nope, partying.
She just watched Legally blonde too many times and thinks she’s Elle Woods.
So, she didn’t go to college because of the partying, but talked about studying law with her mother when she was in college.
Good luck keeping the fallacies straight when you’re on the stand.
Read another John Grisham book.
Kim is a tiresome and attention seeking and I can’t believe how many people fall for her special brand of BS. How are you seriously studying when you travel all the time and your study sessions are sitting by the pool in your bikini surrounded by books that look like they’ve barely been opened? If she’s serious, she’d just DO it and stop talking about it.
Sorry, friend, but one doesn’t achieve Kim’s level of wealth by attention-seeking and being lazy by the pool. Otherwise every reality “star” out there would be rolling in millions. I think it’s time we give Kim some respect for expertly leveraging people’s interest in her into a billion dollar enterprise. She has a skill, and her skill is brand and business management.
I’ve come to admire Kim over the years. She sets clear goals and then uses every leverage she has to achieve them. She once explained how one of her goals was to be on the cover of a fashion magazine, and her publicist at the time basically laughed at her. Kim had the last laugh. I think she sat down and said “I want a billion dollar business, let’s figure this out”, and now we have skims. I have no doubt that she will one day run her own law practice. Respect. All those people that talk sh*t about her not having a talent need to sit down.