Squire Patton Boggs is pleased to announce that Patricia (Pat) R. Hatler has joined the firm’s Financial Services Practice as of counsel in its Columbus office. Ms. Hatler most recently served as executive vice president, chief legal and governance officer at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company for 17 years. Her arrival to Squire Patton Boggs marks the latest of several significant additions to the firm’s growing Financial Services practice group.
Ms. Hatler also previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), the premier in-house bar association for professional corporate counsel who practice in legal departments globally, and is an authority on adding value to major corporations by providing effective and efficient legal service.
“Pat is widely regarded as one of the leading corporate lawyers in the insurance industry and the broader financial services sector. She has a tremendous track record of leveraging technical skill and industry knowledge and experience to deliver value to clients in innovative ways. We are excited that Pat has joined our team, and we look forward to working with her to help our clients,” said Jim Barresi, who leads Squire Patton Boggs’ global Financial Services Practice.
“Pat's 17 year tenure at Nationwide coincided with the Company's significant growth to become one of the country’s largest and most successful diversified insurance and financial services organizations,” said Alex Shumate, managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs’ Columbus office. “With an esteemed career and deep roots in the community which complement our own, we are thrilled to welcome Pat to our team.”
“Squire Patton Boggs has a strong reputation for its high quality legal, regulatory and policy services and a diverse roster of international clients. I have always been impressed by this firm’s outstanding team of skilled lawyers, collaborative culture and the breadth of its global platform,” said Ms. Hatler. “I’ve enjoyed a rewarding career at Nationwide and look forward to working with the firm’s growing financial services practice to help clients succeed.”
At Nationwide, Ms. Hatler was responsible for the full strategic, operational, budgetary, and talent management of six divisions at the Fortune 100 company, totaling a team of 1,400 staff. Some of her key achievements while at Nationwide include providing legal and regulatory support for Nationwide’s mergers and acquisitions; creating the infrastructure for Nationwide’s implementation of the regulatory requirements under the Dodd Frank Act; leading an industry coalition that secured unanimous approval of both chambers of Congress to amend Dodd Frank’s capital requirements to better reflect state-regulated insurance practices; representing the interests of Nationwide in the significant litigation and regulatory inquiries that followed Hurricane Katrina; and creating the company’s first centralized compliance unit.
Squire Patton Boggs has made several notable additions to its Financial Services Practice in recent months including: Wolfgang Maschek, formerly Senior Counsel and Vice-President for International Regulatory Affairs at Western Union; Donald Lamson, a former senior lawyer with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); Bob Barnett, a former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); Ray Natter, a former Deputy General Counsel of the OCC and senior lawyer at the Federal Reserve Board; Zach Luck, a former Senior Advisor to the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Jim Sivon, a former general counsel of the Association of Bank Holding Companies and staff director for the Republican Members of the House Financial Services Committee.
Ms. Hatler is active is the community, having worked as an adjunct professor at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. She serves on the board of trustees of the Law and Leadership Institute and of the Columbus College of Art and Design, where she is also Chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee. Additionally, Ms. Hatler sits on the board of the United Way of America, Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, Kent’s Hill School and the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Ms. Hatler is the Founding Member of the Columbus Chief Legal Officer Forum.
Ms. Hatler was honored by Inside Counsel with the “Transformative Leadership Award” and named the “Regional Legal Employer of the Year” by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. She received her B.S., magna cum laude with honors, from Duke University and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a Hardy Dillard Fellow and served on the Moot Court Board.