Jehan Patterson is a litigation counsel based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group. Her practice focuses on advising the firm’s financial institutional clients on matters related to consumer finance law and enforcement. She has represented individuals and entities before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Prior to joining Debevoise, Ms. Patterson served as a senior litigation counsel in the Office of Enforcement at the CFPB for over six years, where she led investigations into numerous providers of consumer financial products and services for violations of federal consumer financial laws and regulations, including the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s prohibition against unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices. In her role, she filed civil enforcement actions against banks and other financial companies and individuals resulting in entry of administrative consent orders and federal district court judgments. Some of her negotiated settlements imposed injunctive relief that required institutions to implement appropriate information security systems governance structures to incorporate regulatory compliance at all stages of lifecycle development, develop data integrity plans to mitigate the risk of loss of accuracy and completeness in large-scale transfers of data among institutions, and establish testing processes to account for probable events that have the potential to have an adverse impact on consumers. She also litigated on behalf of the Bureau, including leading dispositive motion practice and managing civil discovery for matters where settlements were not achievable. She often coordinated or partnered with state Attorneys’ General offices and other state financial regulators throughout the country on investigations and litigation.
Prior to her time at the CFPB, Ms. Patterson was a staff attorney at a public interest law firm where she represented clients in impact litigation concerning, among other issues, government transparency, open records, access to courts, data privacy, class actions, workers’ rights, constitutional claims, and Administrative Procedure Act challenges. Ms. Patterson was an associate at Debevoise earlier in her career before going on to serve as a law clerk to Judge Anne E. Thompson in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. She also worked at another international law firm and a non-profit agency representing clients in residential foreclosure actions and in affirmative litigation against lenders and mortgage servicers.
Ms. Patterson received her B.A. from Brown University and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.