Failing the bar exam isn’t the embarrassing part of this story 😬 Explaining that you’re a “lawyer,” just not an “attorney,” after serving as “general counsel” is where things get interesting. Here’s what reportedly happened: > Katie Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine’s law school in 2011. She took the California bar exam, failed, and never retook it. > That first part is nothing to mock. The bar is hard. Plenty of excellent attorneys failed on their first attempt. > But graduating from law school and being authorized to practice law are separate accomplishments. > One gets you a diploma. The other gets you clients whose problems you are legally permitted to make your problems. > Zacharia went on to work in China, publicly describe herself as a lawyer, and hold the title of “general counsel” at Fix California. > When questions about her credentials surfaced, she offered an explanation: she says Pepperdine’s president told her she could call herself a “lawyer,” but not an “attorney” or “esquire.” > That is an incredible amount of responsibility to place on a synonym. > There IS a version of this distinction floating around the internet: > “Lawyer” means someone educated in law. > “Attorney” means someone licensed to practice it. > You can find people making that argument. You can find dictionary discussions about it. > The problem is that California has an actual statute. > Business and Professions Code § 6126 covers people who practice law without authorization AND people who hold themselves out as entitled to practice law. > That second part matters. > You don’t necessarily have to walk into a courtroom, file a lawsuit, or bill someone $800 an hour to create a problem. How you represent your qualifications to the public can itself matter. > And the statute doesn’t say, “Unless you remembered to use ‘lawyer’ instead of ‘attorney.’” > The question is what you are communicating about your authority to practice law. A different noun doesn’t automatically fix that. > Which brings us to “general counsel.” > That’s a particularly difficult title to square with the explanation. > When an organization introduces its general counsel, people generally understand that to mean the person responsible for its legal affairs. > Nobody thinks, “Ah yes, their designated law school graduate.” > A watchdog group has now filed a State Bar complaint. A complaint is an allegation, not a finding, and whether her specific conduct violated the law requires more than watching a clip. > But the broader lesson is pretty simple: > A J.D. is a real accomplishment. So is working internationally. Neither needs to be inflated into a license you don’t hold. All she had to say was “I graduated from law school and worked at a firm in China, BUT I'M NOT LICENSED TO PRACTICE." Why lie? Geez.