Is President Trump's new press secretary a real lawyer, or just a lawyer on TV?
Just three days after taking office, Katie Zakaria faced questions about resume fraud. She calls herself a lawyer, while the president calls her "an attorney." Asked on Tuesday which state she passed the bar exam in, she twice responded: "When I moved to China."
Huh?
The scene capped a checkered debut for the woman who took on perhaps the most challenging public relations job in the country. Now, she is trying to make sense of her experience.
On Wednesday night, she told the New York Times that the commotion surrounding "lawyer," "attorney" and "China" was a big misunderstanding.
“I thought the question was: ‘Where did you go after law school?’” she said. She responded while hurriedly on the phone on the tarmac while the president was holding a midterm election rally in Arizona.
“That’s all I could hear over the noise of Marine One,” she said. "And out of protocol protocol, I kept a distance from the president, which prevented me from leaning forward to hear questions."
She emphasized that that day was only the second day of her new job.
So, what are the facts about Katie Zakaria, who is not really an attorney: She graduated from Pepperdine University in 2011 with a law degree. Technically speaking, this does make her a "lawyer." But is she an "attorney" licensed to practice law and able to provide legal advice? To qualify, she must pass the bar exam. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that she took the California bar exam after law school but failed. The New York Times was also unable to find her license to practice law in California or anywhere else she has lived in the United States.
During the brief phone call Wednesday, The New York Times was not able to ask her again whether she had passed any bar exams. But before hanging up, she did explain that when she first started appearing on cable news, she consulted the president of Pepperdine University about how to identify herself. She said that the other party warned her not to use the terms "attorney" or "esquire" at the time, but said that there was no problem with using "lawyer".
But is it legal to use "general counsel"? Because on LinkedIn, Zakaria lists his title as general counsel under the name of "Repair California", a group led by Trump confidant Richard Grenell.
"In the United States, you must be qualified as a lawyer and be allowed to practice law, otherwise you are not allowed to serve as the general counsel of a company," Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, pointed out. "'General counsel' means that you are engaged in legal practice and providing legal advice to companies. You are not allowed to practice law without a license."
On Wednesday, a watchdog filed a complaint with the California State Bar asking for an investigation into whether Zakaria "repeatedly represented to the public that he was qualified to practice law without being licensed, which is considered a crime under California law."
This involves the trip to China.
The White House explained this week that Zakaria traveled to China with her husband, Taylor, who was working at a U.S. private equity firm. Zakaria claimed that while in China, she was engaged in "international transaction law" practice.
On her LinkedIn profile, she lists nearly two years of work experience at Zhong Lun Law Firm. Zhong Lun is one of the largest law firms in China, headquartered in Beijing, with branches in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The law firm did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The practice space for foreign lawyers in China is extremely narrow. Foreign citizens are not allowed to take China's judicial examinations, hold Chinese lawyer's licenses, or provide advice on Chinese law. However, they can be employed by Chinese law firms to participate in cross-border transactions and provide legal advice on foreign or international law.
Gao Jun, a Shanghai-based partner at Zhong Lun Law Firm, said law firms often hire foreign personnel to assist with language communication and help Chinese employees understand foreign business cultures.
"They were not qualified to practice Chinese law at any time," he said, adding that Zakaria's position at the law firm was likely to be similar to a paid internship.
Liu Sida, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in mainland law, pointed out that Zakaria's reference to herself as a former "associate" (lawyer) of Zhong Lun Law Firm is misleading because it implies that she was a licensed lawyer in China.
"Chinese law firms can hire foreigners to work in their mainland offices, but such personnel will not be classified as Chinese lawyers, because to obtain the qualifications to practice Chinese lawyers must have Chinese nationality," Liu Sida said, "therefore, using the title 'associate' may be controversial."
