As Regions Bank Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary, Tara Plimpton serves as one of 10 direct reports to the company’s CEO.
With extensive and ever-changing responsibilities, Plimpton seeks to serve her team and community with great care in her decision-making.
Plimpton’s areas of responsibility are vast, and as a member of the executive leadership team for Alabama’s largest bank, it’s critical that she works to maintain a strong relationship with the state’s top policymakers.
Since joining Regions in 2020, Plimpton has led her team to aid regulators’ understanding of the impact of laws on the financial services industry, ultimately allowing Regions to better serve their customers and communities.
Plimpton joined Regions after a nearly two decade-long career at General Electric, and she’s passionate about continuing to grow and evolve in her current role.
“I’m still learning the financial services industry and being able to learn something new is one of the things I love most about this job. I want to continue to grow as a valuable member of the Regions team. In addition, I want to continue to lead the legal department in a way that builds a best-in-class department, but more importantly, creates a wonderful place for the team to work.”
And while she continues to learn, Plimpton has already been honored for her work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and her service to her fellow colleagues. In 2022, Corporate Counsel recognized Plimpton as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion. Additionally, Plimpton recently oversaw the Regions Legal team’s achievement of Mansfield Rule Legal Department Edition certification, which is modeled after the Mansfield Rule for law firms, a well-known national movement to increase diversity in the legal profession.
“It was a lot of work, but it demonstrates a real operational focus on DE&I and shows the practical value a good DE&I program brings to the business,” Plimpton says.
In an industry that has largely lacked diversity in the past, Plimpton says she understands the importance of inclusion and recognizes the inclusion efforts of those who came before her.
She’s also a testament to the fact that sometimes, life takes us down unexpected paths.
After attending a small high school where few of her peers went to college, she decided to study International Affairs in the hopes of pursuing International Law. And while she taught International Law at the university level for a brief time, she ultimately followed an unanticipated path to corporate law.
“The reason was simply that when I graduated from law school I needed to move in with my grandmother to take care of her, so I went to work for a small commercial firm in her hometown. It ended up being a wonderful experience, and ultimately led me down the path of becoming an in-house lawyer.”
Whether in the corporate world or in her community, Plimpton has a heart for service and prioritizes community engagement for both herself and her team. She has overseen programs that provide financial education to inmates at an Alabama women’s prison, and she served as a Cabinet Member for the Birmingham United Way. She currently serves on the board of Equal Justice Works, which facilitates opportunities for law students and lawyers in underserved communities across the country.
