Bondurant Mixson & Elmore partner Steven Rosenwasser has decamped for Greenberg Traurig, saying he wants to build a litigation practice focused on Atlanta's booming fintech and payments industry.

He joined Greenberg on Nov. 4 as a shareholder.

Rosenwasser, 46, has represented plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of high-stakes individual suits and class actions over his 20-year career at Bondurant, one of Atlanta's most elite litigation boutiques. The Daily Report named him an On the Rise pick in 2008, soon after he made partner.

Three years ago, Rosenwasser said, he started handling cases for Global Payments, headquartered in Atlanta, and that sparked his interest in the fintech and payments industry.

He said he decided he needed a global corporate firm with a strong corporate and financial services practice to develop a payments industry-focused litigation practice. "Greenberg Traurig allows me to go from a firm with a single office and a Georgia footprint to a firm with a global footprint," he said, adding that  Greenberg's "entrepreneurial culture" and existing corporate practice serving fintech and payments clients make it a good fit.

"I had a very good experience at Bondurant," he added. "I'm ready to start another chapter in my practice, handling bigger and different matters."

Rosenwasser said he sees an "unmet need" for a litigation practice that specifically addresses fintech and payments industry issues, explaining that a lot of firms are building corporate and transactional groups to serve the industry–but aren't focusing on litigation. "It's an underserved market, and I want to use my expertise and knowledge about the payments industry to do that," he said. "Frankly, it's pretty fascinating."

"It's a complicated industry," he said, so successfully handling payments and fintech litigation "means understanding the industry and the business—how it works from when you swipe a card to make a payment."

It's also an emerging industry that's still developing, Rosenwasser added."Only now are companies starting to identify the types of disputes that are going to lead to litigation. That's the big opportunity here that Greenberg Traurig and I are hoping to fill."

At Bondurant, Rosenwasser started out handling mostly plaintiffs cases. That included winning a $281 million Fulton County jury verdict as part of a Bondurant team that represented businessman David McDavid over a breach of contract claim arising from the sale of the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers—and helping achieve two other nine-figure settlements for plaintiffs clients.

But for the last five years, Rosenwasser said, he has been more focused on the defense side, primarily for corporations. He started doing work for Global Payments after its $4.3 billion acquisition in 2016 of its smaller rival, Heartland Payments Systems, based in Princeton, New Jersey.

Bondurant initially represented Global Payments and Heartland in a still-pending insider trading suit and related claims for breach of fiduciary duty and breach of noncompete covenants against former Heartland founder and CEO Robert Carr. (Carr settled a subsequent suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year by paying a $250,000 civil penalty.)

Since then, Rosenwasser has successfully defended Global Payments and its subsidiary Heartland in two putative national class actions in New Jersey—one alleging overcharges and another alleging Fair Credit Reporting Act violations over disclosure requirements for background checks—winning motions to dismiss in both.

But he was part of a Bondurant team that just lost a breach of contract suit against Global Payments, brought by a Montana-based payment processor that recruited merchants for it. In September a DeKalb County jury returned a $135 million plaintiffs verdict. Global Payments is appealing.

Rosenwasser is currently representing Global Payments in several suits against former employees alleging breaches of confidentiality and non-soliciting agreements. In one, he secured a preliminary injunction against the defendant that in February was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

While Rosenwasser is focusing on fintech litigation at Greenberg, he said he'll continue to handle complex litigation, including class actions, for both plaintiffs and defendants.