What Zacharia’s Title Trouble Means for Lawyer Bios, Business Cards, and Signature Blocks

Can you be a lawyer without being an attorney? It sounds like a trick question, and last week it became a very public one.

Katie Zacharia, who left her job rather inauspiciously as White House press secretary on Friday, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that she did not pass the bar exam. She had called herself a lawyer anyway, a use the ABA’s definition does not support, and chose that word over attorney on purpose. A watchdog group has filed a complaint with the State Bar of California. Zacharia also claimed to work as general counsel for a group in the Golden State.

This post takes no position on her short-lived employment, which didn’t require a law degree. It is about the question she put on the table, which most law firm marketing answers by guesswork.

Lawyer and Attorney Mean the Same Thing

The ABA defines a lawyer, also called an attorney, counsel, or counselor, as a licensed professional who advises and represents others in legal matters. One license, several nouns.

Attorney comes from an Old French word, lawyer from an Old English one. That is about the only difference, but it feeds a popular myth: a lawyer finished law school, and an attorney passed the bar. Forbes notes some in the legal community make that argument, and plenty of legal websites repeat versions of it. Power of attorney adds to the muddle. An attorney-in-fact is anyone given the power to act for someone else, and need not be a lawyer at all.

Fifty States, Fifty Rulebooks

Local jurisdictional rules govern how you title or represent yourself to the public. In California, advertising or holding yourself out as entitled to practice without an active license is a misdemeanor, and the statute also reaches suspended, disbarred, and involuntarily inactive lawyers. Michigan’s statute names the words: nobody may designate themselves “attorney at law, or lawyer” without a Michigan license.

Your law firm’s website may reach a regional or national client base, but the rules are local.

Being licensed somewhere else doesn’t settle it. If you’re admitted in one state and provide counsel in another state beyond the limits of legal ethics rules, you may be practicing law without a license there, and Michigan’s bar, for one, treats you as a non-attorney for unauthorized-practice purposes. For a firm with offices in several states, the local office page is effectively a legal document.

Even the vocabulary changes. New York lawyers are formally attorneys and counselors at law. In parts of New England, a lawyer becomes Attorney Smith, which would sound odd in New York or New Jersey.  Since 2004, Texas lets a lawyer use Dr. or J.D. so long as it doesn’t mislead.

General Counsel Is Not a Decoration

A general counsel is an organization’s chief legal officer, who represents the organization as an attorney. Most states let a lawyer work in-house without a local license, and some require registration. A 1998 Ohio Supreme Court opinion held that a county agency lawyer, licensed in two other states but not Ohio, held herself out as licensed by using General Counsel on her letterhead.

Esquire: A Title Your Mother Should Give You

Esquire – commonly shortened to Esq. – trips up more lawyers than any word above. It began as a rank above gentleman and below knight, and Shakespeare was already needling people who put on airs with it, through Justice Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Garner’s, the usage bible, calls it “quite non-U” (Bourgeois) for a lawyer to put Esq. on their own cards. The New York City Bar saw it differently and found that using Esq. after your own name is not an ethics violation. Etiquette, in other words, not ethics.

In 2022, a lawyer of 40 years wrote to Miss Manners that he had upbraided a woman for using Esq. at all. Miss Manners answered that it is no sillier for women than for men, since neither are squires. She added that if she were his lawyer, she would tell him to stop right now.

House Rules for Bios, Cards, and Signature Blocks

States regulate lawyer advertising through their rules of professional conduct, and a title on a bio is a communication about the lawyer’s services. A New York opinion held that a non-admitted employee’s card can list a J.D. or a title like Legal Project Manager only if it says plainly the person isn’t admitted to practice. Unlicensed graduates can’t call themselves a lawyer or attorney at law at all. So:

• Skip Esq. on your own cards, bios, and signature blocks.
• Use lawyer or attorney only for licensed people, and list each one’s state admissions to avoid confusion or misrepresentation.

When in Doubt, Ask Someone Who Knows

Katie Zacharia told The New York Times she sought guidance on her self-titling conundrum by asking the president of Pepperdine Caruso School of Law (where she earned her Juris Doctor) whether lawyer was safe to use. Good intention, but the wrong answer.

If you’re unsure about a title on your site, ask the state bar instead. And if you really want to show you’re an attorney, get it in writing.

Titles are one piece of positioning. At Rain, we know how to best position lawyers, law firms, and their brands. If your bios need a second look, talk to us.

Photo Credit: By Andrea Hanks / The White House – P20261013AH-0626, Public Domain.