Senior Counsel - Patents

About this role:

Wells Fargo is seeking a Senior Counsel – Patents to join the Intellectual Property Section of the Legal Department. In this role, you will serve as a strategic intellectual property advisor to the enterprise, helping shape and advance how the company creates, protects, and leverages innovation across areas such as artificial intelligence, payments, fraud prevention, digital banking, and enterprise technology. You will counsel business and technology leaders across the full range of intellectual property matters, provide strategic oversight of the outside counsel who prepare and prosecute the company's patent applications, and support intellectual property litigation and disputes as well as the intellectual property aspects of commercial, licensing, and strategic transactions. This is an opportunity to influence enterprise strategy at a leading financial institution, to partner directly with the innovators building the company's technology, and to help Wells Fargo navigate an increasingly complex and competitive intellectual property landscape.

In this role, you will:

• Serve as a strategic advisor to business and technology leaders, partnering with them to identify, develop, and protect innovations aligned with Wells Fargo's strategic priorities.
• Lead invention harvesting activities, invention disclosure reviews, and innovation counseling efforts that translate business strategy into protectable intellectual property.
• Evaluate inventions and other innovations for patentability, strategic value, business impact, and portfolio fit, and recommend the protection approach that best advances enterprise objectives.
• Provide strategic oversight of outside counsel responsible for preparing and prosecuting patent applications, setting filing, claiming, and quality expectations and ensuring consistency across the portfolio.
• Conduct patentability assessments, competitive and landscape intelligence reviews, and freedom-to-operate analyses that inform product, investment, and go-to-market decisions.
• Build strong partnerships with inventors, engineers, software developers, architects, data scientists, and business leaders.
• Deliver intellectual property education and training programs that promote innovation and intellectual property awareness across the enterprise.
• Leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and legal technology tools to improve the efficiency, scalability, and quality of intellectual property counseling, outside counsel oversight, invention evaluation, portfolio management, and legal service delivery.
• Help shape the strategic priorities of the Intellectual Property Section and support continuous improvement initiatives that enhance intellectual property operations, reporting, analytics, and business impact.
• Support intellectual property litigation and disputes, including infringement and validity assessments, assertion and defense strategy, responses to third-party demand letters, and coordination with litigation counsel and outside counsel.
• Advise senior leadership on enterprise intellectual property strategy, policy, and governance, including emerging risks and opportunities presented by new technologies, partnerships, and business models.

Required Qualifications:

• 4+ years of Law experience, or equivalent demonstrated through work or education.
• Active State Bar membership or the equivalent in a country outside the United States

Desired Qualifications:

• Registration to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• 4+ years of experience preparing and prosecuting United States patent applications.
• Degree in science, engineering, or another field supporting patent practice eligibility.
• Experience evaluating software and financial technology inventions for patent protection.
• Experience managing outside counsel supporting patent drafting and prosecution outcomes.
• Experience shaping patent strategy for a large enterprise or complex patent portfolio.
• Experience applying AI-enabled tools to patent review, prosecution, or portfolio analysis.
• Knowledge of AI, payments, digital banking, fraud prevention, cloud, or cybersecurity.

Job Expectations:

• Ability to work from one of the posted locations on the required hybrid schedule.
• Ability to work in the office at least three days each week.
• Relocation assistance is not available for this position.

Pay Range
 

Reflected is the base pay range offered for this position. Pay may vary depending on factors including but not limited to demonstrated examples of prior performance, skills, experience, or work location. Employees may also be eligible for incentive opportunities.

Benefits

Wells Fargo provides eligible employees with a comprehensive set of benefits, many of which are listed below. Visit Benefits - Wells Fargo Jobs for an overview of the following benefit plans and programs offered to employees.

• Health benefits
• 401(k) Plan
• Paid time off
• Disability benefits
• Life insurance, critical illness insurance, and accident insurance
• Parental leave
• Critical caregiving leave
• Discounts and savings
• Commuter benefits
• Tuition reimbursement
• Scholarships for dependent children
• Adoption reimbursement

Posting End Date:

*Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

We Value Equal Opportunity

Wells Fargo is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Employees support our focus on building strong customer relationships balanced with a strong risk mitigating and compliance-driven culture which firmly establishes those disciplines as critical to the success of our customers and company. They are accountable for execution of all applicable risk programs (Credit, Market, Financial Crimes, Operational, Regulatory Compliance), which includes effectively following and adhering to applicable Wells Fargo policies and procedures, appropriately fulfilling risk and compliance obligations, timely and effective escalation and remediation of issues, and making sound risk decisions. There is emphasis on proactive monitoring, governance, risk identification and escalation, as well as making sound risk decisions commensurate with the business unit’s risk appetite and all risk and compliance program requirements.

Applicants with Disabilities

To request a medical accommodation during the application or interview process, visit Disability Inclusion at Wells Fargo.

Drug and Alcohol Policy

Wells Fargo maintains a drug free workplace.  Please see our Drug and Alcohol Policy to learn more.

Wells Fargo Recruitment and Hiring Requirements:

a. Third-Party recordings are prohibited unless authorized by Wells Fargo.

b. Wells Fargo requires you to directly represent your own experiences during the recruiting and hiring process.