Washington Post, He Passed the Bar This Year at 17. Now He’ll Be Prosecuting.:
At 13, as his friends were finishing eighth grade, Peter Park was starting law school. A year later, he was finishing his freshman year finals by day, and passing his first major law school exam by night.
This past July, Park took California’s bar exam, and in November, he became the youngest person in state history to pass at 17, beating the previous record holder — who passed at 18 — according to the Tulare County district attorney’s office, where Park now works. His two younger sisters and parents moved with him three hours north for the job.
On Tuesday, he was sworn in as a deputy district attorney. …
It started when he was 13, and his father — himself involved with law as a patent agent — came into his room with an idea. The elder Park had read about a 21-year-old who had passed the bar and thought maybe his son could, too.
“Do you want to become an attorney right now?” his father, ByungJoo Park, asked him. … He wasn’t worried about missing out on the perceived fun of high school and eventually college. Pursuing law school felt like he was doing something more important and meaningful with his life.
His dad told him he had to start studying for the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests, which, if passed, would allow Park to apply to law school without an undergraduate degree. …
By early 2019, he had passed all the CLEP exams and could start applying to law school while he finished eighth grade. By the time he was starting high school, he had enrolled in a four-year juris doctor program at Northwestern California University School of Law online, using a state rule that allows students who have completed the necessary CLEP exams to apply directly to law school without completing a bachelor’s degree. …
According to his father’s plan, halfway through sophomore year of high school, Park could take the California High School Proficiency Exam to graduate at the end of 10th grade. In 2021, Park did just that. …
On Tuesday, the day of his swearing in, Park walked into a conference room of the district attorney’s office around 3:30 p.m. … As Park took the oath, and looked at his father in the audience, the new prosecutor was proud of the work he’d done over the past four years.
“I have my whole life in front of me,” Park said. “This DA’s office gave me as a 17-year-old a chance. Now I get to prove myself in court.”
