President Trump's new press secretary Katie Zacharia faces scrutiny over whether she is a licensed attorney. Three days into the role, she struggled to answer which state bar exam she passed, twice replying, "When I moved to China." She later attributed the confusion to noise from Marine One on the tarmac in Arizona.
Zacharia earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011 but The Wall Street Journal reported she sat for the California bar exam and did not pass. The New York Times found no active law license for her in California or elsewhere. Legal experts, including Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley Law School, say using "general counsel" on LinkedIn for Fix California implies practicing law, which requires a license.
A watchdog group filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association alleging she held herself out as entitled to practice law without a license. While in China, she worked at Zhong Lun Law Firm on international transactions, though foreign nationals cannot hold a Chinese law license.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing