The Most Powerful Women in Banking: No. 21, Ellen Patterson, Wells Fargo

In 2020, less than one year into becoming Wells Fargo CEO, Charles Scharf tapped Ellen Patterson to lead the bank's legal department. The job promised to be a challenge: Well Fargo faced a mountain of federal investigations plus class action lawsuits and overall concern it could not manage risk.

Four years after coming over from TD Bank, Patterson said, "I feel really good about the progress we've made putting a number of historical matters behind us."

In February, for instance, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ended a consent order stemming from Wells Fargo salespeople opening accounts without customers' permission. The one-page OCC order noted the San Francisco bank's "safety and soundness" and "compliance with laws and regulations."

"The sales practices consent order closure was a very important step, but it's a step and we know there's more work to do to meet our outstanding regulatory requirements," Patterson said.

These requirements include a 2018 Federal Reserve order preventing the bank from growing past its current $1.9 trillion in assets, and smaller matters, such as a Securities and Exchange Commission probe launched in November regarding clients earning returns from uninvested cash balances.

In addition to responding to discrete legal matters, Patterson also works to vastly improve the bank's risk and control standards. This means overhauling a team of over 1,200 attorneys and legal professionals. It also entails "just basic daily, weekly, monthly management discipline," she said.

According to Patterson, the legal department is involved from the start even when Wells Fargo rolls out routine items like new lines of credit cards. Attorneys work with auditors across the bank on how risk can be mitigated. Patterson said her lawyers "need to understand really how the products work on an end-to-end basis" from the technology that supports a product's operation to how it might be marketed.

One stamp Patterson put on the legal department is expanding pro bono work. Attorneys, paralegals and administrative assistants at Wells Fargo logged 3,600 pro bono hours in 2023, more than double from the prior year, according to the bank.

Patterson, who lives in Philadelphia and works in New York, has served on the board of directors for the Greater United Way of Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey since 2019. Her work there includes supporting free legal advice to clear or seal an individual's criminal record.

Patterson's career started at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett where she became a partner, advising banks on mergers and acquisitions. Interested in getting closer to the strategic decisions banks make, Patterson joined TD Bank, where she rose to general counsel before joining Wells Fargo.

"The opportunity to build and develop a team in support of a company strategy," Patterson said, "it's what I really like doing."