“A lot of the misinformation, miscommunication, Jack, is around the fact that I labeled myself ‘lawyer,’” Zacharia said. “I consulted for a very long time, many people in the field, ‘Is it OK and acceptable if I label myself ‘lawyer’—not ‘attorney at law,’ not ‘Katie Zacharia esquire’—but ‘lawyer,’ and provide legal analysis, not legal advice. And they said ‘absolutely’ across the board.”
Zacharia obtained her J.D. from Pepperdine University and took the California state bar exam soon after graduation, but she didn’t pass. She told Posobiec that she was distracted, overwhelmed, and excited by her upcoming marriage and plans to join her new husband in China, so the exam was not top-of-mind.
“We just said, ‘Let’s take this time, and I’ll take the bar and see what happens,’” the new press secretary said. “The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China, and we left shortly thereafter. After moving to China, I didn’t really think much of the bar results as something I needed to focus on.… There’s no Chinese bar, I had enough credentials, which was my law degree, to be able to do this practice.”