Scott Lester Bonder, Attorney

Scott L. Bonder is a trial lawyer practicing principally in the areas of business and commercial litigation, breach of contract disputes, wrongful interference with contracts and business relationships, consumer fraud, RICO and class actions.

Formerly a litigation partner with one of the world's largest law firms, Mr. Bonder has regularly been named one of Atlanta's "Super Lawyers" for Business Litigation and one of Atlanta's "Legal Elite" by Georgia Trend Magazine. Recently, Mr. Bonder was named as one of the Top 100 Georgia Lawyers by Atlanta Magazine.

He has represented clients in, among others, the automotive, hospitality, manufacturing, investment banking, securities, advertising, banking and distribution industries. Mr. Bonder handles commercial collection work for an international franchisor of hotels as well as regularly representing other businesses in ongoing relationships. Mr. Bonder has represented consumers in a wide range of cases, including false advertising, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent conveyances, defamation and property related disputes. Mr. Bonder also handles select Catastrophic Injury cases.

Mr. Bonder's experience before federal and state courts includes class actions, jury trials, bench trials and appellate matters. He has appeared in the State Courts of Georgia, New York and Florida and federal courts in Georgia, New York, Alabama, and California.

Representative cases include:

A suit on behalf of a consultant to recover shares and options from an international high-end clothing manufacturer. The shares and options were to be paid as compensation for services pursuant to a consulting contract, which the manufacturer breached. Although the shares and options were worth under $100,000 at the time the contract was signed, this matter settled, just days before starting a jury trial, for over $2 million.

Recovery of over $12 million on behalf of a minority shareholder arising from the breach of a contract to purchase shares in one of Georgia's largest privately held corporations.

Seizure of over $16 million in trucks from a nationwide freight carrier on behalf of an automotive finance company.

Mr. Bonder also regularly represents a number of businesses including an international hotel franchisor, an investment banking firm, a large dental practice, advertising agency, property investment firm and software developer.

Examples of reported appellate cases on which Mr. Bonder worked include Flagstar Bank v. Bernstein and Turpeau v. Fidelity Financial Services, Inc. In Flagstar, Mr. Bonder successfully represented a lender against a mortgage broker who fraudulently originated a high volume of loans. In Turpeau, Mr. Bonder represented a finance company in a class action involving credit life insurance. There, he successfully argued on behalf of a defendant that punitive damages should be aggregated for purposes of establishing federal diversity jurisdiction.

Mr. Bonder is a regularly invited instructor at Emory Law School's Trial Advocacy Program. He also teaches contract law to a variety of industries, such as teaching contract law at various hospitality related classes and events. Mr. Bonder also teaches trial evidence to other lawyers in continuing legal education classes, and his articles have appeared in a wide variety of publications to various audiences.

While attending Emory University School of Law, Mr. Bonder was a national moot court champion, having won the awards for best oralist and best team at the Irving R. Kaufman Securities Law Moot Court Competition, sponsored by Fordham Law School. Mr. Bonder also won the award for best brief in the Georgia region of the National Moot Court Competition sponsored by the New York Bar Association.

In the legal community, Mr. Bonder is an active participant in numerous professionalism programs, was the coordinator for Region V of the National Moot Court Competition and continues to judge numerous moot court and mock trial competitions. He has also been an invited speaker on oral advocacy to various Moot Court Societies.

Mr. Bonder obtained his law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1995. Prior to law school, Mr. Bonder was a United States Marine.