WilmerHale is pleased to announce that John C. Wells, the former deputy enforcement director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until his recent departure, has joined the firm as a partner.

Based in the Washington, DC office, Mr. Wells joins WilmerHale’s industry-leading financial services practice relied on by a wide range of clients to address the most novel and difficult regulatory issues. With its longstanding and deep consumer financial-services capabilities, the practice has assisted clients on CFPB matters since the bureau’s inception in 2011. WilmerHale has built one of the nation’s pre-eminent CFPB practices, having been involved in a substantial portion of the Bureau’s major enforcement actions.

Mr. Wells joined the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement in July 2012 as an enforcement attorney. He later became assistant litigation deputy, then deputy director in March 2018. All told, he led or supervised more than 75 public enforcement actions while at the CFPB.

“John has an extraordinary breadth and depth of CFPB experience and strong knowledge of other federal agencies as well as state and local law enforcement,” said Stephanie Avakian, chair of the firm’s Securities and Financial Services Department, which includes the CFPB practice. “We are confident our clients will welcome and value his perspective.”

“I chose WilmerHale for the strength and breadth of its platform,” Mr. Wells said. “The firm’s banking and government-facing practices are a natural fit for me and provide the client one-stop shopping on many issues.”

Before joining the CFPB, Mr. Wells was counsel in another Washington, DC law firm’s white-collar practice where he gained broad experience in all phases of litigation and internal investigations.

Mr. Wells was a law clerk for US Circuit Judge Karen J. Williams (ret.) of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Mr. Wells earned his JD cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2001 and his BA cum laude from Harvard University in 1998.