Obama's lawyer on the Netflix and Spotify deals is going into the Biden Treasury Department

<p><img src="https://static2.businessinsider.com/image/6046878a2db4af00117e4261-2400/AP20136496845933.jpg" border="0" alt="AP20136496845933" data-mce-source="AP" data-mce-caption="Former President Barack Obama gestures during remarks in December 2019 at the Gathering of Rising Leaders in the Asia Pacific, organized by the Obama Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>The Treasury Department has turned to the upper ranks of former President Obama's nonprofit foundation to fill a pair of leadership posts, tapping into a friendly feeding ground for talent as the Biden administration steps up federal spending on pandemic and economic relief efforts.</p><p>Addar Levi, the top lawyer for the Obama Foundation and an attorney from the former president's personal office, is joining the Treasury Department as deputy general counsel in the coming weeks, Insider has learned. Levi's planned move comes as the Obama Foundation's president, Wally Adeyemo, awaits confirmation to serve as the No. 2 official at the Treasury Department under Secretary Janet Yellen.</p><p>As the Obamas' personal office lawyer, Levi helped the former president and first lady ink recent production deals with Netflix and Spotify. At the foundation, she and Adeyemo were also closely involved in the development of Obama's presidential library. After repeated delays, a legal challenge and federal review, construction of the Obama Presidential Center is set to begin later this year on the South Side of Chicago.</p><p>Levi was among several alumni of the previous Democratic administration who stayed close within the 44th president's orbit and found post-government work at the Obama Foundation. She became the foundation's general counsel in 2019 following the departure of Dana Remus, who left to join Biden's campaign and now serves as White House counsel.</p><p>Remus is a former clerk for Justice Samuel Alito and law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked with Levi in the White House counsel's office late in the Obama administration.&nbsp;</p><h2><img src="https://static1.businessinsider.com/image/604685782db4af00117e4258-2400/GettyImages-1231341438.jpg" border="0" alt="GettyImages 1231341438" data-mce-source="Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Adewale Adeyemo removes his mask during his Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing to be the next deputy Treasury secretary on February 23 in Washington, DC."></h2><h2>A 'utility infielder'</h2><p>Levi joined the Obama White House counsel's office in 2016 from the law firm Covington &amp; Burling, where she was an associate. Working under then-White House counsel Neil Eggleston, she handled ethics issues and congressional oversight while assisting in the closing-down of the Obama administration in its final year, Eggleston said.</p><p>Eggleston, now a partner at the law firm Kirkland &amp; Ellis, likened Levi to a "utility infielder" who could fill a range of roles while also standing her ground "to not get bullied by very senior White House officials."</p><p>"As crises came up, if I needed a really good lawyer to throw into the breach, I would pick Addar Levi," Eggleston said.</p><p>"A significant portion of the job of White House counsel and the White House counsel's office is dealing with other people in the building and, on occasion, telling them, 'No, you can't do that,'" Eggleston added. "It takes a special person to do that and do that in a way that doesn't offend peopleboth be tough and do it in a way that seemed helpful and wasn't designed to disrupt or create conflict."</p><p>Adeyemo and Levi will lead a federal department with a vast portfolio covering everything from regulation of the financial system to the sanctioning of foreign governments.&nbsp;</p><p>Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Treasury has also played a lead role in bailing out airlines and delivering financial relief to millions of Americans and businesses struggling to remain in operation amid the global pandemic.</p><p>Last month, Adeyemo stressed the Treasury Department's foreign policy and national security role as he advocated during his Senate confirmation hearing for an aggressive approach to China.</p><p>"Treasury's tools must play a role in responding to authoritarian governments that seek to subvert our democratic institutions; combating unfair economic practices in China and elsewhere; and detecting and eliminating terrorist organizations that seek to do us harm," said Adeyemo, who served in the Obama administration as a deputy national security advisor and also a deputy on the National Economic Council.</p><p>Biden has not yet selected a nominee for general counsel of the Treasury Department.&nbsp;</p><p>For Adeyemo and Levi, the jump to the Biden administration is likely to come with a pay cut.</p><p>Levi made a base salary of $285,372 in 2019, according to a financial disclosure the Obama Foundation filed last year with the Internal Revenue Service. Adeyemo's base pay was $219,231, according to the same <a href="https://www.obama.org/wp-content/uploads/Obama-Foundation_2019_990.pdf">filing</a>.</p><p>The foundation has yet to make a similar filing, called a Form 990, for the 2020 tax year.</p><p>In recent years, &nbsp;three deputy general counsels at Treasury earned a base salary of $175,000 annually, according to a database of federal salaries maintained by the newspaper Asbury Park Press. Adeyemo, if confirmed, will earn a government salary of nearly $200,000, according to <a href="https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2021/EX.pdf">rates</a> for 2021 listed by the Office of Personnel Management.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-foundation-lawyer-netflix-spotify-biden-treasury-addar-levi-2021-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/candy-corn-ingredients-made-of-gelatin-lac-resin-halloween-sugar-syrup-2017-10">What candy corn is actually made of</a></p>
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