Charlene . Yaneza
Western Union
Charlene Yaneza, Esq., is Deputy General Counsel and Global Head of Litigation, Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Western Union. She is accountable for managing the company's global litigation portfolio, legislative and government affairs strategy, subpoena responses and regulatory investigations and other significant regulatory matters. Her mandate includes reporting to boards, executive management and external auditors, and leading her teams through process improvements and transformation initiatives to enhance effectiveness and efficiency. Charlene joined Western Union in 2019 from BMO Financial Group, where she held increasingly senior roles managing global litigation, investigations and reporting to boards, audit committees, management committees, regulators and external auditors. Most recently she served as Associate General Counsel managing litigation for personal and commercial banking and capital markets businesses, and previously as US Chief Security Officer and Head of Corporate Investigations and as a deputy to BMO's US General Counsel overseeing the legal, compliance and corporate security functions. She was also a member of management and oversight committees and forums including Regulatory Compliance Oversight Committee, Sales Practices Committee and Consumer Practices Committee, among others. Charlene's experience includes strategically managing class action and other complex litigation, investigations, enforcement and regulatory matters covering a wide range of financial services businesses, including money transfer, electronic payments, mobile/online banking, credit cards, trading products and investment and corporate banking. She has driven strategy and reached successful resolutions in multi-million/billion- dollar matters involving allegations relating to securities, prospectus misrepresentation in IPO and other offerings, antitrust/competition, fraud, negligence, RICO, False Claims Act, anti-bribery/anti-corruption, employment, intellectual property and other claims. She also has managed litigation reserves, legal accruals and related processes and reporting in collaboration with Finance and Risk teams. Charlene is passionate about the importance of innovation and process improvements in legal departments. She has led initiatives to implement best practices within her teams, including enhancements in: the adoption of alternative fee arrangements and other discounts with external partners, board and management reporting on litigation and regulatory matters, training and guidance for legal departments and their business and corporate partners, championing risk-based approaches to reduce discovery costs, and developing protocols and templates for internal investigations and other common processes. Since joining Western Union, her teams have enhanced, and continue to enhance, their board reporting, management of external legal spend and use of data and automated tools for reporting and tracking matters. Charlene is a past recipient of the “Top Ten 30-Somethings” Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel, the largest association of in-house legal counsel globally, and of “Top Corporate Counsel,” “Top Litigation Counsel,” and “Rising Star” awards from First Chair. She was also part of the Western Union Legal team that earned a Financial Times Innovative Lawyers award for North America in 2019. Before her career at in-house corporate departments, Ms. Yaneza was an attorney with the global law firm Sidley Austin LLP, focused on high-stakes litigation and internal and government investigations. She has a J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School and a B.A. in Political Science and Hispanic Studies with High Distinction from the University of Michigan.
(09/20)
