Steven O. Grubbs

Mr. Grubbs serves as the Firm’s Managing Director. He is a member of the Sheehy Ware Pappas & Grubbs insurance litigation, construction litigation, transportation litigation, hospitality law, as well as labor and employment law sections in which he is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization – Labor and Employment Law (2005). He has been a litigator for over twenty-five years and has considerable first-chair trial experience in the State and Federal Courts and before the Texas Courts of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court. He cut his teeth defending doctors and nurses from allegations of medical malpractice, including trials involving obstetric and orthopedic negligence while in his second year of practice.

Over the years, Mr. Grubbs has expanded his practice to a variety of disciplines including construction fatalities, trucking, premises liability, construction defects, and commercial matters. Few lawyers in the state, or perhaps the country, have the experience with OSHA litigation as Mr. Grubbs. He has personally managed over 400 OSHA investigations for nearly every industry and occupation, for the employer. Litigation experience matters. To date, Mr. Grubbs has tried over 40 jury, non-jury and administrative cases to verdicts with impressive results.

Mr. Grubbs has also handled hundreds of third-party claims and first-party insurance bad faith claims for Underwriters since 2005. He is intimately familiar with non-standard policy wordings within the Lloyds market and surplus markets and regularly litigated claims for them and many of the larger admitted legacy carriers.

He frequently acts as monitoring counsel for excess insurers where he guides primary counsel and makes recommendations to the carriers on continued exposure analysis and trial strategy. Quite frankly, clients choose Mr. Grubbs for these high-value exposures because of his extensive trial record. Current client exposures include Dram Shop fatalities, construction defects, and trucking exposures. In some instances, Mr. Grubbs acts as the tower manager for the entire tower of excess with limits aggregating up to $1B.

Community Activities

• Appointed by the Mayor and City Council for the City of Bellaire, Texas to serve as a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board; elected as its Vice President (2005-­2011).
• FAA licensed Private Pilot

Lectures Presented

• The Basey Case — Get Going Before it Gets Tough — Presented to Texas Mutual Insurance Company (2000).
• OSHA’s New Multi­Employer Worksite Directive — Presented to Texas Mutual Insurance Company (2001).
• FLSA Compliance for Small Business — Captive lecture to small surgery center HR department (2004).
• Selected Topics in Ethics for the Texas Insurance Adjuster — Presented to various insurance carriers and their TPA’s throughout the country (2006).
• OSHA Inspections: Preparations and Actions for Nonsubscribing Employers — presented to the Texas Association of Responsible Nonsubscribing Employers (TXANS) at their Annual Conference in Austin, Texas (2006).
• Employment Law Basics — Presented to the Houston Claims Association (2006).
• The Top 5 Liability Issues Facing the Texas Funeral Director Today — Presented to the Texas Funeral Director’s Association (Summer 2006).
• Being Cute can Get Ugly: Home Care and the FLSA — Presented to the Texas Association for Home Care (2007).
• Arbitration for the Texas Nonsubscriber (Panelist) — Presented to the Texas Association of Responsible Nonsubscribing Employers (TXANS) at their Annual Conference in Austin, Texas (2007).
• General Contractor/Subcontractor Liability Under Redlinger and its Progeny — Presented at the Blakeman and Associates Annual Employment Law Conference (2008).
• Trucking Litigation and DOT Regs for the Carrier — Presented at the 2008 Risk Management Seminar for the Insurance Network of Texas (2008).

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