President Donald Trump ‘s new Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has raised questions about her law degree and passing the bar exam. Multiple media outlets asked Zacharia about the row surrounding her degree after the press conference today, which was panned by many online.
What Pepperdine said about Katie Zacharia?
Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine in 2007 and got her JD in 2011, as per the university. She is a member of the Dean’s Council at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, as per an October 12, 2026 statement from the university. Zacharia also was a research assistant to Pepperdine president and CEO Jim Gash (JD ’93) when he was professor of law at the Caruso School of Law.
Zacharia graduated with a degree in political science and government from Seaver College, the statement added and noted that as a Pepperdine law student she interned at the White House in the George W. Bush’s administration.
“Zhong Lun is one of China’s leading corporate law firms, often grouped among the country’s so-called red circle firms – a term roughly comparable to the ‘magic circle’ firms in London or ‘white shoe’ firms in New York,” a professor of law and sociology at the University of Hong Kong told the publication.
