The problem with Katie Zacharia calling herself a lawyer

A expanding chorus is voicing involvement concerning White House media administrator Katie Zacharia's self-described lawful career.

Two watchdog groups Wednesday submitted complaints alongside the State Bar of California, asking it to examine whether she violated California law by calling herself a lawyer.

It is a misdemeanor in California to custom law or advertise yourself as an attorney if you don't have a licence to do so.

Several law and legal-ethics professors told Business Insider that if Zacharia misrepresented herself as an attorney, or used a heading akin broad advise without having been admitted to the bar, that could district her in difficulty alongside province bar officials should she try to associate in the future.

Substack publish Popular Information this week reported that Zacharia hadn't been admitted to any province bar, and The Wall Street Journal reported that she unsuccessful California's bar exam following graduating from law academy in 2011. After her graduation, she moved to China, anywhere she worked for a law resolute as an affiliate on an global custom team.

Zacharia Thursday defended calling herself a lawyer.

In an discussion Thursday alongside right-wing advocate Jack Posobiec, Zacharia stated she considered her bar exam results "inconsequential" since of her impending move to China.

"After moving to China, I didn't really think much of the bar results or regard that item that I needed to concentration on," she said.

She told Posobiec that she "consulted for a extremely lengthy period alongside many group in the field" to see if she could tag herself a attorney and recommendation lawful analysis, not "legal advice." She additionally stated she wouldn't measure in on lawful matters as media secretary.

President Trump's new media secretary has often referred to herself as a lawyer. Her LinkedIn leaf says she worked as a broad advise in California, and on Tuesday, in a declaration to Business Insider, she stated she had "practiced global transaction law, alongside all the suitable credentials."

Zacharia used her lawful pedigree to provision herself credibility in her White House role, the Campaign for Accountability stated Wednesday in its grievance to the California bar.

"The community is entitled to depend on the depiction that a individual who calls herself a attorney is in fact licensed to custom law," the collection wrote.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung stated Thursday that Zacharia "is uniquely qualified and whip astute to assistance communicate the American group concerning all the awesome things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she volition do an amazing job as Press Secretary."

In an X article Wednesday, Cheung referred to the Campaign for Accountability as a "radical leftist-organization run by rabid numbskulls suffering from a serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome."

"Nobody takes them earnestly since they are deranged low lifes," his article said.

Watchdog collection Democracy Defenders Fund additionally submitted a grievance alongside the bar.

'Character and fitness'

There is no document that Zacharia has always been licensed to custom law in her residence province of California, a spokesman for the province bar told Business Insider.

Zacharia earned her law flat at California's Pepperdine University in 2011, afterward moved to China, according to her LinkedIn page.

She afterward served as broad advise for Fix California, a governmental assistance group, between January 2024 and March 2025, her LinkedIn leaf says. Richard Grenell, the originator of Fix California and a province division authoritative in the Trump administration, didn't react to requests for comment concerning Zacharia's activity for the organization.

That résume admission could hurt her chances of admission to the bar in future, legal-ethics professors told Business Insider.

The bar admissions procedure in most states includes a stage in which the bar evaluates prospective members' "character and fitness," according to Richard Zitrin, a legal-ethics prof at the University of San Francisco's law school.

Claiming to be a broad advise in California would cut against her if she didn't have a licence to custom law at the time, Zitrin said.

Business Insider reviewed records for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and established no evidence that Zacharia had been admitted to any province bar in the US.

A law resolute in China

Zacharia moved to China alongside her hubby since of his job at an American personal equity firm, the White House said.

In China, lone Chinese nationals can rotate into a associate of the country's bar and custom law, experts in the Chinese lawful scheme told Business Insider.

According to her LinkedIn page, Zacharia worked for Zhong Lun, a ample law resolute in Beijing, between 2011 and 2013. Asked by a newsman on Tuesday which province she passed the bar exam in, Zacharia responded, "When I moved to China."

Unlike the United States, anywhere the bar admission procedure varies by state, China has a sole unified bar exam process. It is accessible lone to Chinese nationals and mostly requires a flat from a Chinese university, according to Jacques deLisle, a prof at the University of Pennsylvania law academy who studies the Chinese lawful system.

"The likelihood that she is a associate of the Chinese bar are basically zero," he said. "Both since of the citizenship necessity and the learning requirement."

It's imaginable for workforce of global law firms to do several activity on transactions without passing a bar exam, but the range of the activity they're permitted to do is limited, according to Taisu Zhang, a prof of Chinese law at Yale Law School. Those firms mostly necessitate workforce to continue a bar exam inside a few years, he said.

Law firms akin Zhong Lun frequently employ latest abroad law academy graduates to assessment contracts and advise on elements of US law for transactions, but they need to "stay inside the edges" of their activity so that they don't cross into practicing law, which is forbidden in China, deLisle said.

"She was never a attorney in China. It doesn't average she didn't do law-related work, but she was never a attorney in China," deLisle said.

Representatives for Zhong Lun didn't react to Business Insider's requests for comment.