18-Year-Old Kathleen Holtz Passes the California Bar

November 19, 2007, 2:18 pm
18-Year-Old Kathleen Holtz Passes the California Bar
Posted by Peter Lattman

kathleenTwo years ago, the WSJ broke news that Kathleen Sullivan, the noted constitutional scholar and former dean of Stanford Law School, failed the California bar, notorious for being the hardest in the nation. (Sullivan passed the second time around.)

Today we have happier bar-exam news about another Kathleen — 18-year-old Kathleen Holtz (pictured). Last month we introduced you to Holtz, a first-year associate at TroyGould in Los Angeles who was awating her bar results.

On Friday night at 6 p.m., Holtz found out that she passed — the first time around. Once sworn in and admitted to the Calfornia bar, she’ll be the youngest lawyer in the Golden State, and quite possibly the nation. Holtz started at Cal State L.A. at age 10 and entered UCLA Law at 15, earning a spot on the law review.

We caught up with Holtz just a few moments ago. “It’s a huge relief,” she said of the news. To celebrate, Holtz says she did some shopping “on Rodeo” and went out to dinner with some friends. But, the Law Blog asked, did she have a drink? “I had water,” she deadpanned.

Things seem to be going well for her at TroyGould. She says she just spent the last few weeks on trial in Superior Court in Orange County. Holtz and two of her colleagues successfully represented the plaintiff in the case. “It was my first trial and it was a fantastic experience,” she said. “It’s very rare for business disputes to go to trial and I was thrilled to experience that so early in my career.”
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