White House press secretary Katie Zacharia’s legal résumé took another hit as a partner at the Chinese law firm she lists on her LinkedIn profile clarified that her job there was likely “similar to a paid internship.”
Zacharia, who started the job this week, has described herself as a lawyer, and President Donald Trump has called her “an attorney,” but she has faced mounting questions about her credentials, and the New York Times spoke with sources at the Zhong Lun Law Firm about her work there.
Reporters asked Zacharia shortly after she abruptly ended her inaugural press conference in which state she had passed the bar exam, she twice answered, “When I moved to China.”
Her LinkedIn profile lists nearly two years at Zhong Lun, one of China’s largest law firms, where she has said she worked on “international transaction law.” The White House said she moved to China with her husband, who had a job at a U.S. private equity firm.
Gary Gao, a Shanghai-based partner at the firm, told the Times that the firm often hires foreigners for language help and to explain foreign business culture to its Chinese staff.
“They are not practicing Chinese law at any time,” Gao said.
Foreign nationals cannot take China’s bar exam or hold a Chinese law license. Sida Liu, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said it was misleading for Zacharia to call herself a former Zhong Lun associate. “The title ‘associate’ may therefore be somewhat controversial,” he said.
In a brief phone call with the Times on Wednesday, Zacharia said the China answer was a misunderstanding, saying that she thought she had been asked where she went after law school.
“That’s all I could hear over the sound of Marine One,” she said, adding that protocol kept her from moving closer to the reporter.
She also said Pepperdine University’s president had warned her not to call herself an “attorney” or “esquire” when she started appearing on cable news, but told her “lawyer” was fine.
Zacharia earned her law degree from Pepperdine in 2011. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that she took the California bar exam afterward but didn’t pass. The Times said it couldn’t find a law license for her in California or any other state where she has lived.
Experts also took issue with her LinkedIn title of “general counsel” for Fix California, a group led by Trump loyalist Richard Grenell.
“You can’t practice law without a license,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school.
On Wednesday, a watchdog group filed a complaint with the California State Bar asking it to investigate whether Zacharia held herself out as a lawyer without a license, conduct California law treats as a crime.
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