Can Kim Kardashian still become a lawyer after the settlement reached with the SEC for Crypto Promo?

Reality TV superstar Kim Kardashian has agreed to pay $1.26 million for pushing a crypto asset on her Instagram feed without disclosing that she had been paid for the post. Federal regulators accused her of touting EthereumMax to her followers without declaring that she was benefitting financially, an illegal thing to do.

“Ms. Kardashian is pleased to have resolved this matter with the SEC,” her lawyer told E! News.

“Kardashian fully cooperated with the SEC from the very beginning and she remains willing to do whatever she can to assist the SEC in this matter. She wanted to get this matter behind her to avoid a protracted dispute. The agreement she reached with the SEC allows her to do that so that she can move forward with her many different business pursuits.”

One of these business pursuits is her aim to become a lawyer. She first made the announcement back in 2019. In California an undergraduate degree is not necessary to become a lawyer, though the baby bar exam needs to be passed. Kardashian took four bites of the apple before accomplishing this feat, doing so in December 2021.

There are more tests to come but those have yet to be taken.

Will the payment to the SEC scupper her chances?

Although Kardashian was found to have broken federal securities law, this was not a criminal proceeding, the case against her was not criminal. This makes the outcome less serious but could still prove a stumbling block.

“There is a character and fitness evaluation that everybody who wants to become a lawyer has to go through and they look for things like arrests, they look at things like being sued,” Andrew Stoltmann, adjunct professor of securities law at Northwestern University, explained to E! News. 

“And this is a pretty significant issue for her. So, is it a potential speed bump to becoming a lawyer? Yes. Do I think it will preclude her from becoming a lawyer? No.”