Biography

Stevi A. Raab focuses her practice on counseling domestic and foreign insurers and representing insurers in complex insurance coverage litigation in state and federal court and mediation involving a wide range of issues including, construction defects, product liability, environmental liability, employment discrimination, securities fraud, and bad faith.

Ms. Raab has experience with a wide range of occurrence and claims-made policies at the primary, umbrella, and excess levels, including aviation liability, commercial general liability, directors and officers, employment practices liability, fidelity, and professional liability.

Ms. Raab’s experience includes preparing coverage opinions, investigating underlying claims, and litigating coverage disputes. She has experience in all phases of litigation including fact discovery, drafting discovery and dispositive motions, expert discovery, summary judgment, depositions, and assisting with trial preparation in both state and federal courts.

Cases in which Ms. Raab has been involved include:

• Representing one of the world’s largest insurers in a high-profile insurance dispute involving alleged construction defects in one of the largest and most-expensive private development projects in the United States, located in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Representing one of the country’s largest casualty insurers in a declaratory judgment action arising out of underlying mass tort claims involving medical devices.
• Representing a major OCIP insurance carrier in a $25 million construction defect insurance coverage action in Las Vegas federal court as well as representing that insurer for claims made by the developer, general contractor, and wrap-enrolled subcontractors.
• Successfully defended and favorably settled a major OCIP insurance carrier in numerous claims and two lawsuits in San Diego, California, concerning insurance coverage for construction defect claims at six new high-rise condominium projects involving claims valued as much as $42 million on a single project.
• Representing insurer with multiple liability exposures in connection with numerous securities class actions, derivative suits, and fiduciary liability actions against public entity insureds.

Affiliations, Activities and Accomplishments

Ms. Raab is a member of the American Bar Association (Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section) and a member of Defense Research Institute’s Insurance Law Committee. She is also an active member of Sedgwick’s Women’s Forum.

In 2012, Ms. Raab received the Wallace Sedgwick Client Service Award for her work as part of the litigation team defending an insurer in one of the largest and most high profile construction defect matters in the country.

While in law school, Ms. Raab was a staff editor of the New York Law School Law Review. She was also a judicial extern for the Honorable John M. Leventhal of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department. 

Presentations & Publications

• “Is Defective Construction an “Occurrence”? The Answer Isn’t So Concrete,” Insurance Coverage Law Report, May 2013.
• “Insurers: Does Your Policy Contain a Broadly Worded EIFS Exclusion? If You’re in Washington, You Might Be in Luck!,” Construction Defect Coverage Quarterly, April 2013.
• “The “Occurrence” Debate Continues: Pennsylvania and North Dakota Edition,” Construction Defect Coverage Quarterly, April 2013.
• “Insurance Coverage Issues for Green-Related Building Projects,” Construction Defect Coverage Quarterly, April 2013.
• "No Faith In Proposed Bad Faith Legislation," Law360, March 2013.
• “Pennsylvania Court Finds No Coverage for Construction Defect Claims Under General Liability Policies,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog, December 11, 2012.
• “South Dakota Supreme Court Decision Affirming Policy’s Exclusion of “Windmills, Windchargers or Towers” Includes Unassembled Wind Turbines,” Sedgwick’s Admiralty & Energy News, November 2012.
• “Ninth Circuit Holds that Dread of Tax Liability Does Not Trigger Duty to Defend,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog, October 22, 2012.
• “First Circuit Finds Coverage for Window Crack Occurring In-Flight Following Insured’s Repair,” Sedgwick’s Aerospace Insurance Update, co-authored with Andrew T. Houghton, September 18, 2012.
• “Court Hands Insurers Win in Food Fight Over E. Coli Claims,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog, July 30, 2012.
• “Federal Court Denies Additional Insured’s Request to Stay Coverage Action Arising From “Moonlight Fire” Claims,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog, July 30, 2012.
• “Premature Exhaustion Leaves Insured Feeling Unsatisfied,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog, co-authored with Aaron F. Mandel, June 22, 2012.
• “New EPA Rules Regarding Air Pollution from Natural Gas Wells,.” Sedgwick's Hydraulic Fracturing Digest, June 2012.
• “The Life of a Claim: An Insurer’s Reservation Of Rights”, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Insurance Law Committee, Current Issues in D&O Liability and Insurance, co-authored with Jill M. Levy and Katelin O’Rourke Gorman, June 7, 2012.
• “Raising a Stink: Pollution Exclusion Applies to Odors,” Law 360, May 2012.
• “What’s All the Stink About? Pennsylvania Federal Court Holds That Pollution Exclusion Applies to Pig Farm Odors,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Update, April 2012.
• “No Fracking Way: Upholding Drilling Bans in New York,” Law 360, March 2012.
• “New York Supreme Court Upholds Towns’ Fracking Bans,” Sedgwick’s Hydraulic Fracturing News Alert, February 2012.