Vice President Kamala Harris graduated from UC Hastings Law School in 1989, and took the July 1989 California Bar exam. She did not pass on her first attempt. (Brett Stephens highlighted this issue in his column.) As per Politico, Harris worked at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office during her 2L summer, and was offered a position as a deputy DA once she passed the bar. Harris was officially admitted to the bar in June 1990.
In July 1989, the pass rate for Hastings was 81.4%. The Hastings Law News covered this statistic.
Harris is among the distinguished individuals who did not pass the bar exam on their first try.
Interestingly, then-Senator Biden delivered a speech at Hastings in February 1989 during Harris’s final year of law school.
