Patricia O'Connell
Patricia acts as Lead Compliance Counsel with Credit Union National Association (CUNA) where she works with the compliance team to provide compliance information, education and training, and regulatory advice to credit unions and leagues. Patricia analyzes and reports on regulatory, legal and compliance issues that affect credit unions and leagues, as well as works closely with other CUNA departments to maintain and expand CUNA’s educational compliance resources, identify compliance issues impacting credit unions and suggest regulatory and legislative solutions, and assist in providing insight for articles addressing compliance developments.
Immediately prior to joining CUNA, Patricia was in-house counsel with a New York-based federal credit union where she worked closely with the various lines of business and with senior management to provide compliance and legal services to the credit union. In addition, Patricia’s previous legal practice has focused on counseling, advocating, and negotiating on behalf of financial, academic and technical not-for-profit clients via policy development, building coalitions and cooperative arrangements among interested stakeholders, participating in the legislative process, and performing complex compliance research and regulatory analysis.
Patricia holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York and Tennessee and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).
