A teenager from California’s Central Valley has become the youngest person ever to pass the state’s bar exam and is now working as a practicing attorney. The Tulare County District Attorney’s office announced that Peter Park learned at 17 that he had passed the “rigorous exam” on his first attempt in what officials called a “legal history-making moment.”

Park has been a law clerk with the office since completing law school. The teen started high school in 2019 when he was 13 and enrolled in a four-year law program at Northwestern California University School of Law at the same time. He was able to enroll due to a state bar rule allowing students to apply to law school after completing the College Level Proficiency Exams. In 2021, he completed his high school studies and then focused on law school, graduating in 2023, according to the DA’s office.

He took the bar exam and then went to work for the district attorney’s office. He received the results of his exam and learned he had broken a record. Before Park, the youngest person to pass the state bar was 18 years old. In a press release, he said, “It was not easy, but it was worth it. It required discipline and strategy to pass the bar, and I made it in the end. I am extremely blessed to have discovered this path, and my hope is that more people will realize that alternative paths exist to becoming an attorney.”

Park, who turned 18 in late November, was sworn in as one of the state’s youngest practicing attorneys, the DA’s office said. California’s bar exam is widely considered particularly challenging. In July 2023, 51.5% of the 7,555 people who took the exam passed.