A Korean-American teenager, Sophia Park, 17, became the new youngest person to pass the California bar exam, beating the previous record that her brother held just one year after his astonishing record.
Sophia’s brother is Peter Park, a Deputy District Attorney at the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Peter made headlines last year when he became the youngest person to pass the California bar exam at the age of 17 and the youngest district attorney in California at 18.
Sophia broke her brother’s record as the youngest person to pass the California bar exam by three months.
Sophia was 17 years and eight months old when the results were announced on November 8. Peter was 17 years and 11 months old when he passed the bar exam last year.
Sophia graduated from high school with a GED in 2022 and earned his law degree this year from Northwestern California University School of Law in Sacramento. She gained experience as an intern at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. She is currently a law clerk at the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Sophia will be sworn in as an attorney in March 2025, when she turns 18. She intends to follow in her brother’s footsteps as a prosecutor in the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office.
In the meantime, more than 200 Korean Americans became new lawyers in California. According to the July 2024 bar exam passers list released by the State Bar of California on November 8, 211 people who are believed to be Korean Americans have passed the exam.
A total of 8,291 candidates took the exam, of which 4,458 passed. That’s a pass rate of 53.8%. This is a higher pass rate than the July 2022 exam (52.4%) and the July 2023 exam (51.5%).
There were 319 candidates who held out-of-state bar licenses with exemptions for some subjects. Of these, 156 (48.9%) passed. Combined, a total of 8,610 candidates took the exam and 4,614 were admitted to the state bar.
The state bar exam is held every February and July. The lowest pass rate ever was in the February 2018 exam (27.3% pass rate).
BY KYEONGJUN KIM, YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [woo.hoonsik@koreadaily.com]
