OneMain Financial Hires Former First Data General Counsel

Adam Rosman is poised to become the new general counsel for OneMain Financial on Jan. 2, when he will take over the lender’s top in-house lawyer role from John Anderson, who is retiring.

The move follows the completion of a $22 billion mega-merger between financial services company Fiserv Inc. and Rosman’s former employer, payment processing giant First Data Corp.

Rosman spent nearly five years as general counsel for Atlanta-based First Data, which was owned by private equity firm KKR & Co. when he came aboard in October 2014, after serving as group general counsel at insurance giant Willis Group Holdings plc. A year later, Rosman helped take First Data public.

First Data’s initial public offering in October 2015, raised $2.56 billion and was the largest of the year. It also generated $3.54 million in legal fees and expenses for First Data’s lawyers at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, according to securities filings by the company. Simpson Thacher also advised First Data this year on its sale to Fiserv, which closed July 29.

Latham & Watkins advised First Data’s board of directors on the merger with Fiserv, which turned to Sullivan & Cromwell for outside counsel on the deal. New Omaha Holdings LP, a KKR affiliate that controlled 39% of First Data’s common stock, was represented by Kirkland & Ellis. Rosman’s LinkedIn profile shows that he served as a Fiserv senior adviser after it completed its purchase of First Data.

Rosman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about his move to Evansville, Ind.-based OneMain, which was once owned by Citigroup Inc. The financial services giant sold the century-old subprime lender in 2015 to Fortress Investment Group LLC-backed Springleaf Holdings Inc., which kept the OneMain name.

Rosman started his legal career by spending a half-dozen years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, leaving for one year to serve in the White House as a deputy assistant and deputy staff secretary at the end of the Clinton administration.

He then joined Zuckerman Spaeder as a partner before becoming an associate general counsel at Cablevision Systems Corp., the former cable giant, and deputy group general counsel at Willis Group, where Rosman was promoted to the top in-house legal job in 2012.