When President Trump announced that Katie Zacharia would serve as the next White House press secretary , he referred to her as an attorney. But she hasn’t passed the bar exam in the U.S.
Zacharia sat for the California bar exam after graduating from law school at Pepperdine University in 2011, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, but she didn’t pass. She took the exam around the time she was planning a wedding and preparing to move to China with her future husband, the person said.
She moved to Beijing that summer to work as an associate on the international practice team at Zhong Lun Law Firm, a prominent law firm in China. Zacharia was later advised by lawyers that she could provide legal analysis based on her law degree and international transaction experience, the person said.
Her legal credentials have come under scrutiny after she didn’t appear in searches for licensed attorneys in California, Texas or Washington, D.C., under her married or maiden name. Judd Legum, a progressive political activist and journalist, raised questions about Zacharia’s standing as an attorney in his Popular Information newsletter.
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When asked by a reporter on Tuesday in which state she passed the bar exam, Zacharia said, “When I moved to China,” without elaborating. In a statement this week, Zacharia said, “I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”
“Katie is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team,” White House spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary.”
A White House official said Zacharia wasn’t hired by the president to work on legal matters.
A person familiar with Zacharia’s employment at the Zhong Lun Law Firm said she was one of four international associates who drafted multimillion-dollar agreements for cross-border transactions and focused on client communication for American and multinational corporations doing business in China.
It wasn’t necessary for individuals working in the firm’s international division to be licensed as attorneys in China, the person said, because they were technically international legal consultants. A U.S. bar qualification wasn’t relevant to the firm’s work, the person said, because any legal opinions would be handled by local Chinese partners.
Zacharia told Buck Sexton on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” in February 2025 that she had worked as outside counsel to the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank while based in China.
Practicing attorneys in the U.S. are required to be licensed by the jurisdiction in which they practice, generally by passing the bar exam and undergoing a review of their moral character. People who identify themselves as lawyers or attorneys or claim to be able to provide legal services without being admitted to the bar can face criminal charges in some states. Some law schools explicitly discourage graduates from calling themselves lawyers or attorneys until they have been admitted to the bar.
California is widely considered one of the tougher state bar exams to pass; about 55% of test-takers passed the July 2025 exam, while roughly 31% did in February of this year, according to the state’s bar association.
Zacharia passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, a test of a candidate’s understanding of legal and professional ethics, before she sat for the bar, said the person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Robert Pushaw, a Pepperdine law professor who taught Zacharia and later attended her wedding, described her as “a good law student and a genuinely good person” but couldn’t say whether the press secretary technically qualified as an attorney. He added that some well-respected legal scholars aren’t attorneys.
Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was confirmed despite facing criticism that he had served as general counsel for Brigham Young University without passing the Utah bar exam. Past presidents of the Utah Bar said that someone working as a general counsel didn’t need to be a member of the bar so long as legal advice was given in conjunction with a barred attorney. The Senate confirmed Griffith 73-24.
Zacharia worked as a research assistant for Roger Alford during her time in law school. Now at the University of Notre Dame, Alford remembered her as “a star at Pepperdine” and said he hoped the public would “get to know her before they prejudge her.”
While he was unfamiliar with all the details of Zacharia’s career after graduation, Alford said that “generally speaking it would be unusual to say that you’re a lawyer if you’ve not passed the bar somewhere.”
Zacharia’s LinkedIn profile lists her as having worked as general counsel for the nonprofit Fix California, founded by Trump administration official Richard Grenell, from January 2024 to March 2025. A person familiar with her tenure there said Zacharia directed and served as the point of contact for the organization’s outside lawyers.
Zacharia, who has appeared on Fox News, CNN and Newsmax before taking on her White House role, called herself a lawyer regularly in public appearances—and some of the outlets in which she appeared did the same.
“As a lawyer, the procedural steps are absolutely critical to ensure that they get this right,” she told Fox News in an Aug. 31 appearance regarding the trial of Charlie Kirk’s accused killer. A line appeared on the chyron at the bottom of the screen referring to her as a legal and political strategist, and as an attorney.
Fox News didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The network’s parent, Fox Corp ., and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
Write to Philip Wegmann at philip.wegmann@wsj.com and Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com