There are no job descriptions for being first lady. Each spouse of the president brings unique interests and qualities to the East Wing that define her role in the life of the nation. Working with a first lady as dynamic as Michelle Obama requires a unique approach.

When Jackie Norris, Mrs. Obama's first chief of staff, left to advise the Corporation for National and Community Service, it was no surprise that the first lady would turn to White House associate counsel Susan Sher, an old friend, to step into the breach.

As the first woman to be Chicago's corporation counsel -- the city's top lawyer -- Sher met Mrs. Obama in 1991, when she interviewed her for a job in the city's legal department. The two later worked together at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Prior to becoming chief of staff, Sher had been advising the first lady's office on legal issues as well as working on health care reform and outreach to the Jewish community -- two areas she hoped to continue while she works in the East Wing.

A few days before she completed her move from the West Wing to the East Wing, Sher sat down to talk about her new assignment with National Journal's James A. Barnes. Edited excerpts follow. Visit the archives page for more Insider Interviews.

NJ: What's the transition been like moving from the West Wing to the East Wing?

Sher: Because I haven't finished the transition yet, I don't know. But I will say that because I know everyone here from my work as counselor, legal adviser, I think it's going to be much easier than my transition when I started here on January 20th.

NJ: You have more time to plan in the East Wing. You're not as reactive as the West Wing.

Sher: I think we have much more of a luxury to think through the policy positions that we present to the first lady, and she makes the final decision about what issues she ends up being involved in in a public way. So I think that that is true.

NJ: Can you talk about your interest in health care and the role you expect to play?

Sher: In that role, it is separate from what I'll do for the first lady. I work there for Nancy-Ann DeParle, who is the leader of the health care reform team and is really fantastic. I think it's important for me to keep that discrete, because the issues that I work on are really, strictly as a lawyer, helping that team as things develop.... The first lady, what she does in terms of health care, I'd say is much broader: issues like prevention, childhood obesity, nutrition, those kinds of issues.

NJ: Is there a challenge striking a balance between the kind of universal platform that the first lady enjoys in the country and the more detailed advocacy work that goes into passing health care?

Sher: My own perception of it is that she doesn't want to get involved in not only the sort of wonky policy issues, but the kind of contentious legislative proposals that are going on at any given time. Because I think her view is that's not where she's most useful. I think she is very much aware of the platform. And in fact I think I saw an interview with Mrs. [Laura] Bush where she actually said the same thing, that it's this amazing platform. And so there is this balance where you have to use it wisely and not for every small or even big issue in a debate, but to try to think about the transcendent issues that she has and will continue to care about.

NJ: How did you come to work for Mayor Richard Daley?

Sher: His first corporation counsel was someone who knew me from Mayer Brown.... He called and said, "Would you come and be the No. 2 person in this office?"... It just seemed like it would be fun. And that's where I first met Valerie Jarrett, who was in the law department, a little-known fact.

NJ: And did you hire Mrs. Obama?

Sher: I didn't hire her, I tried to. I was unsuccessful. I received her resume, which was quite an impressive resume. We were doing a fair amount of hiring, and a lot of people from law firms were willing to take pay cuts to work for city government, to do good, and someone sent me her resume. And I interviewed her and she said, "I want to do public service, but I've been a lawyer and I feel it's too narrow for what I want to do." So at that point, Valerie had moved over to the mayor's office, where she was the deputy chief of staff, and I said, "Oh, I met this impressive woman who, like you, left a law firm; here's her resume." And the rest is history. That was 1991. Who would think?

NJ: So, having known the first lady for some time, how has she changed and how has she stayed the same?

Sher: My perception is that she's really exactly the same. She's the most down-to-earth, kind, warm person she's ever been. She's also really smart, and amazingly adaptable when you think of the changes in her life.

NJ: You've got a lot of things on your plate. Do you ever worry that you might get stretched too thin?

Sher: If I get stretched too thin, then I'll drop these other things. Jewish outreach... I've really enjoyed it, so I would hope to keep that. I won't be doing legal issues for the first lady any more, I'll be the client, so there are other lawyers who will do that. Health care reform hopefully will be intense, but relatively short. There are several other lawyers with whom I work in the White House Counsel's Office, who do a lot of the work, so we have a team, and that's the way I kind of do everything. But if I'm stretched too thin, then those will have to go. My absolute clear first priority is to the first lady's office.

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