New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia faced serious scrutiny after no record could be found of her holding a law licence in any US state.
Zacharia had spent years appearing on cable news programmes billed as a “lawyer,” a claim that went unchallenged until journalists began digging into her credentials this week.
The situation became significantly worse when it emerged she had also referred to herself as “General Counsel,” a formal legal title carrying specific professional and ethical obligations.
It was subsequently revealed that Zacharia had taken the California bar exam, failed it, and continued to present herself as a legal professional regardless of that outcome.
By the time she had left the role, her defenders had pivoted to arguing that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris had also failed the bar exam at some point in their careers.
That defence, however, ignores two critical distinctions: both Clinton and Harris returned and passed the exam, and neither claimed to be anyone’s general counsel in the interim.
The administration’s difficult week with credentials was compounded by a separate controversy involving the Department of Homeland Security and a court-ordered advertising halt.
DHS continued airing its $20 million taxpayer-funded Trump ad campaign even after a federal judge had explicitly ordered the spots to be pulled from broadcast.
The Department of Justice’s own status report offered an explanation that raised further eyebrows, stating that agency counsel did not see the email containing the court order until the following morning.
The episode drew considerable criticism, given that compliance with federal court orders is a foundational expectation of government legal departments operating at any level.
Away from the turbulence surrounding the administration, the legal industry’s large commercial firms had a notably more positive week of developments and announcements.
Cooley became the latest major firm to join the compensation movement sparked by Milbank, moving all US associates onto the new market salary scale that has been spreading across the sector.
Quinn Emanuel scaled back its widely praised Work From Anywhere policy, though the firm’s revised arrangement remains the most flexible remote working deal available anywhere in Biglaw.
Lowenstein Sandler drew particular praise after announcing a new paid leave policy specifically designed for parents whose newborn children face extended stays in neonatal intensive care units.
The policy was widely welcomed across the legal community as a meaningful and practical step forward in workplace support for professionals navigating serious family medical circumstances.