Much like her boss with the 2020 election, Katie Zacharia failed and claimed success anyway.
New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia came to the job from the ranks of cable news punditry, where she routinely appeared as a “lawyer.” She also served, by her own description, as “General Counsel” of a right-wing non-profit based in California.
Except there’s no record of her being licensed in any jurisdiction.
Now the Wall Street Journal has dug a little deeper and found that Zacharia at least tried to become a real lawyer. She just failed.
Did she try wishing upon a star? Because that works just about as well.
Just what you’d expect from the party that never stops belly aching about “participation trophy culture.” Rewarding children for trying is important for self-esteem. Rewarding non-lawyers for failing the bar exam is not.
And the bar exam IS stupid. A closed-book memory test of general doctrinal knowledge does little to prove competence. Lawyers are rarely generalists anymore and dispensing knowledge from memory would be malpractice in the real world. But the need for licensing reform is not an invitation to ignore it altogether. The bar exam exists now, and anyone holding themselves out as a lawyer needs to pass it, get sworn in, and maintain their license by watching hours of mind-numbing CLE. It’s the American way!
Perhaps Katie Zacharia believes she can be a lawyer if Mike Pence has the courage.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
