The tear-jerking viral moment that saw television personality April Daniels witnessing the start of her eldest son’s blossoming law career has captured hearts across the world.
The emotional video clip posted to Instagram on Jan. 8 shows Omarr Rambert, stepson of late Grammy-winning songwriter and producer LaShawn Daniels, being left speechless upon learning that he passed California’s notoriously tough bar exam.
“It was amazing, you know, empowering, just to know that it was able to still be completed after losing my husband, he was a huge part of our foundation,” Daniels told Atlanta Black Star.
The proud mother is overcome with joy in the video as she peeks over Rambert’s shoulder and sees the exam results for the first time.
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Daniels shouts in her video as she jumps and claps at her hardworking son’s victory.
“It’s continuing [my husband’s] legacy, but now, his is beginning,” she said.
“I think for me, it was [a] relief, not just because I passed the bar exam, obviously, that is a great accomplishment,” said Rambert, who celebrated his 25th birthday on Feb. 2. “But it meant more to me because of the goal I set for myself at a young age.”
Rambert’s bar exam results have since been viewed more than 46,000 times on Instagram alone, and since the clip went viral, the recently sworn-in attorney says he’s gotten praise from people all over the world.
“The fact that my story could inspire millions is incredible,” the 2017 Pepperdine University and 2020 UCLA Law School graduate shared.
In the video’s Instagram caption, Rambert wrote, “the mission is accomplished, the bag is secured and this chapter is finished.”
“Being the first person in my family to go to college, then law school, and then to become an attorney, it’s indescribable,” he told Atlanta Black Star.
Daniels says her determined son had been driven to pursue a law career since he was a fifth grader.
“My late husband and I wanted to implement the idea of, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? Let’s work towards the goal,’ and I remember when he said, ‘Oh, I want to be an attorney,’” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, what’s Plan B?’ ‘Plan B? I don’t need a plan B!’ I’m like, this kid in the fifth grade has his life together more than me!”
Rambert says he told his late stepfather that he would someday accomplish the goal of becoming a lawyer — and he was right.
“Not having him here for moments like graduation and to talk to him throughout the process of studying, and then, you know, the process of me taking the bar exam and just missing his presence and his steady hand in my life … to be able to accomplish that goal that I know he would have wanted me to finish, it meant the world,” Rambert said.
“We hear him, we feel him every day, and his presence is physically missed, but spiritually, he’s around us all the time,” Daniels said of her husband.
LaShawn Daniels tragically died in September 2019 at 41 years old after a car accident in South Carolina. He and his wife had been married for 18 years.
“He would have definitely been super proud, probably looking like he does in that picture right behind us and just saying, ‘Oh, you made it, Omeez!’” Daniels smiled.
“He said that to him when he graduated from Pepperdine and we caught it on video,” she said.
Rambert took the bar exam last October after the pandemic pushed the original date back from July. After months of studying, he sat through two days of the exam’s 100 multiple-choice and five essay questions.
“[There was also] an hour-and-a-half-long performance test, they give you a bunch of materials, and you’d have to draft a letter or a brief, or something to simulate what you would do as an attorney,” Rambert recalled. “It’s just a lot of information that you have to learn.”
Rambert anxiously opened his results on Jan. 8, the date that the results were released.
He and 5,291 others — 60.7 percent of applicants — passed the exam, according to the State Bar of California. Rambert was among the group with the highest pass rate of California’s general bar exam since July 2008.
“It’s been a rough last year for us, and there’s been plenty of highs and lows, but just to watch him endure it all and keep going like a well-oiled machine, and complete the tasks that he committed to, it’s just really a joy to see it come full circle,” Daniels said.
Rambert joined the approximately 4 percent of Black attorneys practicing law in California when he was officially sworn in on Jan. 21.
“My stepfather’s lucky number was seven, and so it kind of worked out that way that 01/21/21 was the day that I was sworn in,” he said.
Rambert revealed that at times on his journey he’s felt like the odd one out as the only Black person in the room. “I know how daunting the uncharted territory can be, and at some points you might feel a bit of imposter syndrome, like you don’t belong in those settings when you are the only Black person in your class,” he said.
To other aspiring Black attorneys, Rambert says he hopes his inspiring story is a testament to what is possible.
“I think my story clearly shows that, you know, just being able to get to this point, secure a job, pass the California bar, it’s one of those things where no matter what anyone says, you belong in those rooms,” he said.
Rambert’s first job as a new attorney involves doing litigation work for national law firm Ballard Spahr out of their Los Angeles office.
He says one of his goals as an attorney is to make a mark on the entertainment industry. Apart from his law career, Rambert also wants to express his creativity through film production.
