Thursday, October 15, 2026
PMT: Is She a Lawyer?
Donald Trump's new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, seems to be having a rough first week. The New York Times, for one thing, seems to be on her case for calling herself a "lawyer."
My understanding has always been that if you graduate from law school you are a "lawyer" and if you have passed the bar you are an "attorney-at-law" or "attorney." The evidence is that she graduated from law school but did not take (or did not pass) the bar. She is fine to call herself a lawyer, so long as she doesn't start practicing law without a license. It doesn't appear she has done that.
At any rate, she is not doing a legal job. You don't need any qualifications at all to be press secretary.
The problem is that she doesn't seem to be very good at that, based on her first performance at the podium. But... it's a first performance. Maybe she will get better.
Just don't hire her if you get arrested!
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In my field you have to be licensed to call yourself a psychologist, athough it happens all the time with unlicensed folks. It's a classic prep question for the boards. I have been wondering if the same is true in law.
# posted by 
: 6:13 AM
: 6:13 AM 
Someone can get an accounting degree and be an accountant without taking and passing the CPA exam. I worked in management accounting and briefly in general ledger accounting which did not require this extra certification. A person with a CPA generally doesn't generally say they are an accountant.
I watched a big chunk of Katie Zacarias's 14 minutes and was puzzled by her definition of being a press secretary as to "amplify, multiply, and expand upon President Trump's incredible agenda for the American people." I thought the press secretary was supposed to tell us what's going on that they have knowledge of and the rest of us don't, like confirming that they asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as Ambassador to Greece. Mainly she read a boring list of platitudes about Trump--when she could read at all! I loved Alexandra Petri's headline yesterday: "Hi, I'm Your New Press Secretary, and It's My First Time Reading Words Out Loud." That press conference was funny-sad and funny-horrifying, but mainly it was very very strange. We are better off without a press secretary. I can't see why she wants that job.
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# posted by : 11:35 PM
: 11:35 PM << Home
