Kimberly graduated from the University of San Francisco Law School in 1994, after which she found a job as a prosecutor in San Francisco, however, she lost her job alongside 13 other prosecutors once Terence Hallinan assumed the position of a District Attorney. Following her redundancy, Kimberly became a Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles, where she spent the next four years, working on both adult and juvenile cases such as kidnapping, narcotics, domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide, among others. Her hard work was recognized, and during her time there she was named Prosecutor of the Month, among other recognitions.
She was then re-hired by Hallinan in the position of an Assistant District Attorney for the next four years, and came to prominence after winning the case People v. Noel and Knoller, a second-degree murder trial involving a dog mauling, which gained widespread attention
