Founded in 1991, Rosemont, Ill.-based Wintrust Financial Corp. is one of the faster-growing bank holding companies in the Midwest, fueled in part by savvy bank acquisitions during the recent financial crisis. With $18 billion in assets — second only in size to Northern Trust among Chicago banks — the company’s 15 separate banks offer community and business banking, wealth management and specialty lending services at nearly 125 branches in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas. Wintrust employs more than 3,500 people throughout its operation.
LEGAL TEAM
General counsel Lisa Pattis was Wintrust’s first in-house attorney. Her department comprises five attorneys and six legal assistants. She built the department around the company’s areas of “greatest risk exposure and cost exposure,” she said. The nature of Wintrust’s operations — an amalgam of local banks trading on significant brand and community identity — has allowed for consolidation of legal work within the department.
