Pearl River The good news just keeps coming out of the White House these days, as hard as that may be for some to hear. In this case, the news came almost right from the horse’s mouth, the new press secretary for the White House, not the voice of God exactly, but certainly the voice of adjacent pretenders like Trump and the US government. Here is: we can all say we’re lawyers now.
Yep, that’s the new deal. Katie Zacharia, freshly minted press secretary, after a couple of days of two-stepping and years of claims on Fox News and elsewhere that she called herself a lawyer, says she never passed the bar in California or anywhere else. The “anywhere else” is important because she took a shot at claiming that she had been licensed in China, until that bubble was popped, because the Chinese also run a closed shop for lawyers even tighter than the ABA, and only allow Chinese citizens to be licensed there. She did take the bar, but failed. She did go to law school at Pepperdine University, the conservative school in California. She claimed a higher up at Pepperdine told her she could call herself a lawyer, which has current and former Pepperdine presidents both denying and vacillating about whether they had given her such advice or adding to the prevarication that all of this is wrapped in.
Look all of that is her problem. You certainly don’t have to be a licensed lawyer to be White House press secretary, right, but the good news is that you don’t have to be a licensed lawyer in a lot of other jobs, either. All I’m saying now, is if Katie can do it, maybe we can all call ourselves lawyers. One thing is certain, speaking personally, many of us have been acting like lawyers and practicing law without a license for a longtime. Seems like the White House and Trump administration just gave that a greenlight going forward. Furthermore, like those other so-called lawyers at the US Supreme Court, we can also say we are “originalists” and shouldn’t even be required to be licensed by the states or go to law school. It was only “between 1890 and 1920, the majority of states replaced casual or oral exams with standardized written bar examinations. “
We live in a rules and law-bound world that seeps into almost all of what we do that has infected our daily work and personal lives. For example, as union organizers and representatives, knowing labor law, both public and private, backwards and forwards, is an essential in doing the job and dealing with the membership. Luckily, for all of us “lawyers,” so to speak, no formal legal training or license is required to represent before the NLRB, handle arbitrations or collective bargaining. Believe me on this, whatever law we don’t know, the lawyers for management and the government will make sure you learn.
I learned this early when I had to read welfare manuals in Massachusetts and Arkansas in order to understand the regulations and the federal and state laws that informed such rules. Admittedly, I was looking for “handles” in language that was vague and could be used or retooled to organize or win a campaign. Add to that from then to now, welfare, health care, food stamps, unemployment, and benefit programs generally where grievances, appeals, and hearings can be grist for our mills, for the same reasons. I’m also getting some hard lessons in FCC regulations and media law over the last decade. I’m not qualified yet, but getting closer. Running and working for nonprofit organizations, I’ve got a minor in tax law as well. Training members as stewards or navigators or representatives, means that not only are we practicing law without a license, but we’re running our own version of law schools at the same time.
In the past, the number of times I have been asked by members, officials, and even licensed lawyers, I have been quick to deny it and ask for apologies for the insult or quip that I’m practicing with a license. Now, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, thanks to Katie. We can all say we’re lawyers now!