Chief Legal Officer
 

Laura O'Hara is M&T Bank’s Chief Legal Officer and oversees the company’s legal affairs, as well as the Office of the Corporate Secretary. Laura is a member of the steering committee and sponsor of the M&T Pride Resource Group.
 

Laura has more than 40 years of financial service, litigation, regulatory compliance, and risk management experience. Prior to joining M&T in 2017, she served as executive vice president and general counsel of Santander Bank. She was also an executive vice president and general counsel for Consumer and Commercial Banking at the Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS Citizens from 2011 to 2015. There, she led legal support for all consumer and commercial lines of business including retail banking, mortgage, broker dealer, business banking, credit card, auto lending and student lending, as well as servicing and operations for those businesses. Earlier in her career, she was with J.P. Morgan Chase and Company, where she held various senior level positions responsible for legal, compliance, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, and regulatory affairs, ultimately serving as senior vice president and general counsel for Chase Home Lending.
 

Laura is a member of the Executive Committee for the Bank Policy Institute, a board member for The Clearing House, and a council member for the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice.
 

She holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Villanova University, where she graduated summa cum laude.