Prior to joining Winston & Strawn in 2003, Ms. Edwards served for three years as executive vice president and chief legal officer at Bank One Corporation, a predecessor company to JPMorgan Chase. Previous to that, for over 25 years, Edwards spent her career at Morgan Stanley, where she succeeded to the role of executive vice president and chief legal officer of that company (the first and only woman to do so) and its predecessors. It was there that she achieved the distinction of becoming the first female General Counsel on Wall Street.
In 2010, Edwards joined the public company board of BMO Financial (TSX, NYSE “BMO”), a $940 Billion asset banking institution headquartered in Toronto. She chairs the Nominating and Governance Committee and serves on the Human Resource Committee. She also serves on the Board of BMO Bank, the company’s US subsidiary headquartered in Chicago and on the Board’s Audit and Compensation Committees.
Edwards also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board for RUSH System for Health in Chicago, where she chairs the Audit Committee and serves on the Nominating and Governance Committees.
Edwards serves on the Leadership Board of the US Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness in Washington DC. She Co-Chairs the Chicago Chapter of the International Organization of Women Corporate Directors and Co-chairs that organizations’ Nominating and Governance Peer to Peer Exchange. Ms. Edwards is a frequent speaker and author on topics of corporate governance and the financial services industry.