Sophia Park, 17, and her family huddled around her laptop one evening this month as she entered her details onto the State Bar of California’s website and clicked “Check pass list.”
Sophia’s smile grew as she read the results: She passed the July 2024 general bar exam, a requirement to be licensed as a practicing lawyer in the Golden State. Her family clapped and hugged her.
“I am very happy and excited,” Sophia said in a video that the family uploaded to YouTube.
The California bar is among the most difficult licensing requirements exams in the country, and just under 54 percent of the 8,291 people who took it in July passed.
But Sophia’s accomplishment goes beyond that. At 17 years and 8 months old, she is believed to be the youngest person to pass the state’s bar exam, besting the previous record-holder: her older brother, Peter, who passed the exam in November 2023, when he was 17 years and 11 months old.
Sophia achieved this feat while taking advanced courses online from home, enabling her to graduate from high school, college and law school in about four years.
After she turns 18 in March, Sophia will join her brother Peter at the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office in Tulare County, Calif., as a prosecutor. She has been working there as a law clerk since January 2024, writing motions, sending discovery — or case material — to defense attorneys and conducting preliminary trials.
“Sophia’s amazing accomplishments speak for themselves, and we could not be prouder as an office family,” said Tim Ward, the district attorney of Tulare County.
“Passing the State Bar exam at any age is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Leah Wilson, the executive director of the State Bar, “and to do so at 17 is truly exceptional.”
Sophia’s interest in law traces back to her first birthday, when she picked up a judge’s gavel among all the items placed in front of her at her Doljabi ceremony, the Korean ritual that traditionally predicts a child’s future. As she got older, Sophia said, she realized how the law could be used to help others.
“I think that’s what intrigued me and made me want to pursue a career in the law field,” she said.
She grew up in Cypress, a city in Orange County, and attended public school there. In June 2020, when she was 13 and heading into eighth grade, she began law school online at Northwestern California University School of Law, taking classes like criminal law and introduction to law and legal analysis alongside her math and science school work.
Like her brother, Sophia enrolled under a state bar rule that allowed students to apply to law school once they completed the College Level Examination Program, or CLEP, exams administered by the College Board, which awards college credit.
Sophia said she wanted to focus on her legal studies, and she transitioned to home-schooling during her freshman year of high school, letting her devote more energy and time to study because she no longer had a school commute.
“Seeing my brother start law school at an early age, it was natural for me to start at a young age,” Sophia said. “I knew what I wanted to do, and there was a direct path.”
In May 2022, she graduated from high school after passing the California High School Proficiency Exam, or the CHSPE, earning the equivalent of a high school diploma.
The following May, she received her bachelor’s degree in educational studies in elementary education from Western Governors University, an online school that offers an accelerated program.
Sophia lived at home while pursuing her law degree, and her coursework was mostly independent study, she said. Her classroom was her family’s study room, where she, Peter and their two younger siblings worked at desks alongside one another.
This past summer, Sophia worked as an intern at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. In August, the Park family moved to Visalia in Tulare County, a largely rural area, because Peter got a job at the district attorney’s office there. Sophia also began working at the district attorney’s office while finishing law school.
Sophia graduated from NWCULaw with her Juris Doctor of Law in June. In July, she took the California State Bar, a two-day exam given twice a year that consists of five one-hour essay questions; one 90-minute performance test and 200 multiple-choice questions.
She acknowledges her path differs from others her age, forgoing prom, sports events and other high school and college experiences. “Seeing where I’m at right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said. “I’m having an experience not many get to have.”
She’s also aware that her experiences differ from her older colleagues, but said the Tulare district attorney’s office has been supportive. “I ask a lot of questions at work, and they happily answer them,” she said. “I learn a lot from watching them, too.”
Steve Grippi, an adjunct professor at Lincoln Law School of Sacramento and former chief deputy district attorney at the Sacramento district attorney’s office, said the job of a prosecutor includes deciding whether to file cases and arguing cases in front of a jury or judge.
“District attorneys’ offices, in my opinion, are a really good place to start any person’s practice of law,” Mr. Grippi said, adding there are opportunities for young deputies to learn about the profession and its ethical obligations.
Peter said his best advice for his sister is to believe in herself. He’s looking forward to working with her more closely as an attorney next year, he said. “I think that would be even more exciting, because we’d be working on cases, and we could discuss them at home,” he said.
Sophia said she is thrilled about her future as a prosecutor, where she can be “the voice for victims and fight for justice” in her community. She hopes her fast track leads her to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice one day.
“I hope that other people will be encouraged by my journey to take chances at working toward their dreams and not to limit themselves,” she said.
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