Controversy is swirling around the White House’s newly appointed press secretary Katie Zirkin, as questions about her repeated claims to hold active legal credentials continue to escalate, putting the Trump administration on the defensive. When former President Donald Trump announced Zirkin’s appointment last week, he explicitly introduced her as an attorney, a label Zirkin has also used to describe herself publicly for years. But when pressed by a reporter Tuesday while standing alongside Trump, Zirkin gave an evasive answer that only fueled skepticism: when asked which U.S. state she had passed the required bar exam to practice law, she replied, “When I moved to China.”
Public records show no active bar registration for Zirkin in any U.S. state she has previously resided. Undeterred by the growing questions, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung came to Zirkin’s defense this week, arguing she is “uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people” of the administration’s priorities. In her own written statement addressing the credential controversy, Zirkin asserted that she “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”
By Wednesday, the scrutiny had translated into formal action: nonpartisan government watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed an official complaint with the California State Bar Association, demanding a full investigation into whether Zirkin “repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practise law without a licence to do so” — conduct that California state law classifies as a misdemeanor crime.
Pepperdine University, Zirkin’s California-based law school, has confirmed the 42-year-old former political strategist graduated from its law program in 2011. Crucially, a law degree alone does not grant permission to practice law in the United States, where passing a state-administered bar exam and holding active bar registration is mandatory for legal practice.
Zirkin told *The New York Times* Wednesday that when she first began appearing as a political commentator on cable news, she reached out to Pepperdine administration to ask how she should describe her professional background. She claimed the university president advised her she could refer to herself as a lawyer, but not an attorney — a distinction that has done little to quiet criticism of her public misrepresentation.
Citing multiple anonymous sources with direct knowledge of Zirkin’s career, *The Wall Street Journal* reported that Zirkin did attempt to pass the California bar exam shortly after her 2011 graduation, but ultimately failed the test. California’s bar examination is widely recognized as one of the most difficult such assessments in the United States, with historical pass rates hovering below 60% in most years. Sources told the outlet that Zirkin took the exam at a time when she was juggling wedding planning and preparations to relocate to Beijing with her fiancé, who had accepted a job there.
Following the wedding, Zirkin did move to Beijing, where her husband worked for an American private equity firm. She has repeatedly claimed she worked on international transactional legal matters during her time in the country. Her public LinkedIn profile lists a two-year stint as an associate at Beijing-based Zhong Lun Law Firm between 2011 and 2013. However, Chinese law restricts active law practice licenses to Chinese citizens only; foreign nationals may only work at domestic Chinese law firms in non-licensed support or administrative roles, and cannot represent clients in legal proceedings or offer formal legal advice.
In a February 2023 appearance on the conservative talk radio program *The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show*, Zirkin claimed she had served as outside counsel for both the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank during her time living in China. The BBC has reached out to both the World Bank and IFC to request comment on Zirkin’s claim. It is understood that the World Bank Group contracts outside law firms for legal work, and it is the contracted firms, not the World Bank Group, that assign individual legal professionals to specific matters.
Zirkin’s LinkedIn profile also lists a role as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative nonprofit organization founded by Ric Grenell, a long-time ally of Donald Trump who served as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term. The controversy over Zirkin’s credentials comes as she prepares to lead the White House’s press operations, a high-profile role that requires regular engagement with the White House press corps and accountability to the American public.