Steve Raptis has more than fifteen years of experience handling complex, multiparty commercial disputes, concentrating on insurance recovery for policyholders.  Mr. Raptis applies strategic thinking and focused, multidisciplinary solutions to maximize recoveries for clients while minimizing their costs.  Where possible, this involves use of negotiation and mediation to achieve timely and cost-effective results; but when necessary, Mr. Raptis aggressively litigates insurance coverage and other commercial disputes in state and federal courts throughout the country, and has a proven track record of obtaining favorable results for clients.

Mr. Raptis' insurance experience is diverse and deep, and includes cases involving environmental contamination, asbestos bodily injury and other product-related claims, governmental claims, construction-related claims and more. These cases -- some of the largest and most complex of their kind in the country -- have resulted in clients recovering hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance proceeds.  Some of these representations include: 

• Numerous large oil companies and manufacturers in comprehensive environmental cost recovery; many matters involved hundreds of sites with numerous lines of historical coverage
• More than a dozen large electrical and gas utilities in coverage matters relating to legacy manufactured gas plants, PCB  contamination, and associated toxic tort/bodily injury claims
• Pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, contractors, and successor trusts in major asbestos bodily injury coverage cases
• Government contractors facing investigations and claims by governmental entities
• Entities seeking to access insurance in construction defect cases 

Mr. Raptis also advises clients regarding pre-dispute strategies for:

• Buying insurance
• Assessing and preserving the value of potential insurance claims
• Dealing with insurance issues in mergers and acquisitions
• Dealing with competing rights in shared coverage
• Locating missing policies

In addition to his insurance-related work, Mr. Raptis is an accomplished commercial litigator who has successfully represented clients in a wide array of business-related disputes, including complex contractual and indemnity disputes, products liability claims, intellectual property disputes, business-related tort claims, and governmental claims.

Mr. Raptis also has a career-long commitment to pro bono work, some of which includes fifteen years of representing victims of domestic violence in obtaining emergency restraining orders, representation of clients with developmental disabilities in obtaining living accommodations free from abuse and neglect, and representation of African-American farmers in obtaining compensation for past discriminatory loan practices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

Prior to joining Manatt, Mr. Raptis worked at major law firms in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh.