https://www.thedailybeast.com/tina-tchen-the-obama-staffer-turned-hollywood-player-at-the-heart-of-the-jussie-smollett-controversy
“Her spirits were very good,” Jarrett said when asked about how Tchen was feeling on Thursday. Brooks added, “Tina’s always enthusiastic when we’re talking about gender equity.”
A native of Beachwood, Ohio, Tchen went to undergrad at Harvard before receiving her law degree at Northwestern University in 1984. She stayed in Chicago and became a partner at the law firm Skadden Arps, where she stayed for 23 years.
It’s during this period that she first met Jarrett and the Obamas. Michelle Obama was a senior vice president at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Jarrett served as chair of the board of trustees and Tchen had a seat. “She was a part of the Lakefront liberal progressive community,” Jarrett said, explaining that their fights for gender equity are rooted in being working single mothers. “She has an outstanding national reputation for being both an exceptional lawyer, an advocate for gender equity and a very decent human being,” Jarrett added.
Today, Tchen is one of the nation’s leading fixers. Uber’s general counsel Tony West brought her in to advise on sexual assault protocol following several scandals. “I’m grateful for her friendship and leadership,” West, a member of the Obama camp who served as Associate Attorney General of the United States, said in a statement to The Daily Beast. The Recording Academy also recruited Tchen to chair their Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion. “She has an ability to build consensus among a wide variety of groups and agendas and give more voices an opportunity to be heard,” said Julie Swidler, task force member and EVP at Sony Music Entertainment."