General Counsel – USAA Bank

Purpose of Job

The SVP, General Counsel Bank leads the corporate legal function for the USAA Federal Savings Bank (“FSB”) and USAA Savings Bank (“USB”) (collectively “Banks”), provides legal advice and services as may be required by the Banks, and is the senior officer responsible for the legal affairs of the Banks.
This role proactively participates with members of the Bank senior management team in the development and execution of all aspects of the strategic and operational plans for the Bank and coordinates all legal activities involving the Banks and the USAA General Counsel’s department to assure ongoing compliance, optimal resource utilization and appropriate professional staff development for all attorneys and support staff in the banks.

Job Requirements

Managerial Responsibilities

• Leads design and execution of the Banks’ legal strategy, taking into account USAA’s business strategy, and legal, regulatory and supervisory requirements.

• Role models USAA’s mission, core values, culture and desired behaviors – including a culture of risk awareness and accountability.
• Develops talent in the legal department to deliver performance and results – including the identification, development and retention of talent with requisite legal capabilities as well as providing leadership and overseeing performance management and staff development activities.
• Supervises and drives operational planning of the legal function.
• Oversees funding, budgeting and execution of legal initiatives and projects across the two Banks.

• Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments by setting and clearly communicating expectations and roles and responsibilities.

Technical and Risk Responsibilities

• Provides legal advice regarding issues before the Banks, including corporate, financial services regulatory, legislative and litigation matters.
• Serves as the Secretary to the two bank boards of directors: direct and support all board meetings, review presentations and agenda, address questions from directors, oversee appropriate governance practices, and ensure that regulatory requirements are met.
• Represents the Banks before federal or state financial services regulatory agencies, as appropriate, including applications and requests for approval of proposed transactions, informing agencies of legal issues concerning the Bank.
• Supports the negotiation of, and drafting or advising on the legal implications of, legally binding agreements, forms and other documents (including electronic documents).
• Collaborates with the Enterprise Litigation group to manage litigation involving the Banks through internal or external counsel.
• Attends hearings and communicates the Banks’ position to regulatory bodies, trade associations and legal interest groups.
• Takes appropriate steps to protect the Banks from legal liabilities involving lending, insured deposit taking and other banking activities, corporate activities relating to the operation of federally insured financial institutions.
• Provides enterprise regulatory support through partnership and collaboration with key clients, including legal, compliance, risk and business partners, for the purpose of influencing decisions and managing risks to achieve strategic goals.

Governance Committees

Interacts with or participates in enterprise governance committees, such as:

• Bank Executive Committee
• Bank Risk Management Committee
• First Line of Defense Committee

Education

• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Juris Doctorate (JD) from an accredited law school required.

Experience

• A minimum of 15 years of experience in providing legal advice to complex organizations--with significant experience providing legal advice to financial organizations-- in private legal practice, in-house counsel, regulatory agency, or equivalent with a proven track record leading comparable operations and programs is required.
• A minimum of 10 years of people leadership experience in building, managing and/or developing high-performing teams is required.
• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in a large financial institution ($100 billion +), including 5+ years post-Dodd Frank, in a legal role is preferred.

Regulatory Understanding*

Demonstrated understanding of the full spectrum of regulatory actions, including examinations and other supervisory engagement and processes, such as:

• Dodd-Frank Act
• Home Owners’ Loan Act
• Federal Reserve Act
• Military Lending Act
• Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
• Federal Trade Commission Act (Section 5)
• Fair Lending Laws
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Privacy)
• OCC Supervisory Guidance: Large Bank Supervision Handbook; Corporate and Risk Governance Handbook; key OCC bulletins (Model Risk Governance; New Products and Services Risk Management; Third-Party Risk Management)
• FFIEC guidance

Federal regulations and supervisory guidance:

• 12 CFR Part 5
• 12 CFR Part 30, including Appendices A through E
• 12 CFR Part 167 (Capital)
• 12 CFR Part 215 (Regulation O)
• 12 CFR Part 223 (Regulation W)
• 12 CFR Part 226 (Regulation Z)
• 12 CFR Part 1002 (Regulation B)

Certifications

Industry certification, such as being a member in good standing of at least one state bar and ability to meet applicable additional state bar requirements is required.