Wells Fargo's legal team, led by Ellen Patterson, has one of the most difficult jobs in finance.
After a series of scandals derailed Wells Fargo's relationship with regulators and consumers, adding new executives at the top levels of the bank has helped to refurbish its tarnished reputation. Patterson herself came on roughly three years ago.
"I think I have one of the best jobs. The challenge and opportunity to advance Wells Fargo's transformation and the belief that we have the commitment and ability to do so are what drew me to this job in 2020 shortly after Charlie Scharf became CEO," she said. "I joined because I believed I could meaningfully contribute to our top priority of building the risk and control infrastructure appropriate for Wells Fargo's size and complexity."
As general counsel, Patterson leads roughly 1,300 attorneys and legal professionals across the bank. She was formerly the general counsel at TD Bank Group.
Patterson said she's proud of the progress Wells has made. She said she's had a great deal of freedom to build the legal department, and that 50% of her direct reports are new to the bank since she's joined, and 80% are new to their roles.
"We have implemented substantial portions of the work required, but we have more implementation to do, as well as work to support effective operation of the changes over time," she said. "Internally and externally, we make it very clear this is the top priority."
In one of the most recent developments related to Wells Fargo's consumer troubles, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in December ordered Wells Fargo to
"Our settlement last December was broad reaching, and an important step forward in resolving several legacy issues that had been outstanding for some time," Patterson said.
Patterson said that she's passionate about "developing our next generation of leaders."
"It's something I think about daily and use as one of the key guideposts for managing my time," she said. "To me, it means providing meaningful, challenging development opportunities for the senior leaders who report to me, spending dedicated time working with future leaders of the department on leadership skills and advancing the company's strategy and getting out across our entire footprint to meet members of the legal team and others across the company."
She also said that she's a strong supporter of the advancement of women as leaders at any level.
"I take joy from my relationships with women colleagues and from supporting them. Women can play such an important role in making a positive, supportive workplace for other women," she said. "And I am a big proponent of the role men can play in this as well. They're still making a lot of the hiring and promotion decisions, and I am really happy to have a great set of male colleagues who show up to support the careers of women on their teams and across Wells Fargo."
