Questions have been raised about the professional background of new White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia after it emerged that she had not passed the examinations required to practise law in the United States. US President Donald Trump introduced her as a lawyer when announcing her appointment, while she herself has repeatedly used the professional title during television appearances.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which cited a person with direct knowledge of the matter, Zacharia sat the California Bar examination after graduating from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011 but failed to pass. At the time, she was preparing for her wedding and planning to move to China with her future husband.

In the summer of that year, she moved to Beijing, where she began working as an associate in the international affairs department of Zhong Lun Law Firm, one of China’s leading law firms. According to the same source, lawyers later told her that she could provide legal analysis on the basis of her law degree and experience in international transactions.

Her professional credentials came under scrutiny when searches of the registers of licensed lawyers in California, Texas and Washington failed to return her name, either under her married surname or her maiden name. Judd Legum, a progressive political activist and journalist, was among those who raised questions about her status as a lawyer in his Popular Information newsletter.

When a journalist asked her on Tuesday in which US state she had passed the bar examination, Zacharia replied, “when I moved to China”, without offering further clarification. In a statement this week, she maintained: “I worked professionally in international commercial law, possessing all the required professional qualifications.”

White House spokesman Steven Cheung defended her appointment, saying: “Katie is an excellent and valuable addition to the team. She has unique qualifications and exceptional intelligence to inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his administration have done, and she will do an excellent job as press secretary.”

A White House official clarified that the US president had not hired Zacharia to handle legal matters.

A person familiar with her work at Zhong Lun Law Firm said she was one of four international associates who drafted contracts worth millions of dollars for cross-border transactions, while also handling communications with American and multinational companies operating in China. According to the same source, staff in the firm’s international department were not required to hold a licence to practise law in China because they were formally employed as international legal consultants. Nor was a US law licence a prerequisite for the role, as Chinese lawyers holding the relevant licences handled any formal legal opinions.

In an interview with Buck Sexton on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show in February 2025, Zacharia said that, while in China, she had worked as an external legal consultant for the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank.

In the United States, people practising law must hold a licence issued by the relevant jurisdiction in which they operate. The process generally involves passing the relevant bar examination and undergoing a review of the candidate’s character and fitness.

In some US states, people who describe themselves as lawyers or claim to be able to provide legal services without being admitted to the local bar may face criminal prosecution. Some law schools explicitly advise their graduates against using the title of lawyer before obtaining the required professional licence.

California’s bar examination is widely regarded as one of the most difficult in the United States. According to figures from the state bar, about 55% of candidates passed the July 2025 examination, while the pass rate for the February 2026 examination was just 31%.

Before sitting the bar examination, Zacharia had passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, which assesses candidates’ knowledge of legal and professional ethics, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Robert Pushaw, a law professor at Pepperdine University who taught Zacharia and later attended her wedding, described her as “a good law student and a genuinely good person”. However, he was unable to clarify whether the new White House press secretary technically met the requirements to be described as a lawyer. He added, however, that some highly distinguished legal scholars did not hold a licence to practise law.

There has been another case in the past that prompted similar controversy. Judge Thomas Griffith, who was appointed by former US President George W Bush to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, faced criticism for serving as general counsel of Brigham Young University without having passed Utah’s bar examination. Former presidents of the Utah State Bar argued that someone working as general counsel did not necessarily have to be a member of the bar, provided legal advice was given in collaboration with a licensed lawyer. The Senate ultimately confirmed Griffith’s appointment by 73 votes to 24.

During her studies, Zacharia worked as a research assistant to Roger Alford. Alford, who is now at the University of Notre Dame, remembers her as “one of the stars of Pepperdine” and expressed hope that the public would have the opportunity “to get to know her before rushing to judge her”. Although he said he was unfamiliar with all the details of her professional career after graduation, Alford noted that “in general, it would be unusual to say you’re a lawyer if you haven’t passed the relevant exam somewhere”.

On her LinkedIn profile, Zacharia states that she worked as general counsel for the non-profit organisation Fix California from January 2024 to March 2025. The organisation was founded by Richard Grenell, an official in the Trump administration. A person familiar with her tenure there said Zacharia coordinated the organisation’s outside lawyers and served as its main point of contact with them.

Before taking up her White House role, Zacharia appeared on Fox News, CNN and Newsmax. During her public appearances, she frequently described herself as a lawyer, while some of the media outlets hosting her used the same designation.

“As a lawyer, [I have to say that] the procedural steps are absolutely critical to ensuring everything is done correctly,” she said during an appearance on Fox News on 31 August, commenting on the trial of the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. The caption displayed at the bottom of the television screen described her as a legal and political strategy adviser and a lawyer. Fox News did not respond to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal.