Siber-Sanderowitz, Senior Counsel and VP of Insurance Analytics at SterlingRisk, blends legal expertise and data-driven insights, advising on coverage, risk transfer, and claims management, with distinguished credentials including CPCU, AIDA, and admission to multiple New York courts.
For the magazine Insurance Business Review, she shared invaluable insights on how clarity, focus, and outcome‑driven communication enable Siber‑Sanderowitz to balance law and analytics, turning complex insurance data into practical, client‑focused risk decisions.
1. Which core skill has been most influential in your work across insurance litigation and analytics?
Focus is a skill I’m always working to improve and build on. There’s always more data, more opinions, and more analytics (likely more than anyone needs). The hard part isn’t necessarily identifying data; it’s figuring out what matters in the end. Over time, I’ve learned to concentrate on issues that genuinely impact risk, cost, or a client’s business decision and try to tune out the rest if it’s just a red herring or noise.
True risk expertise lies in balancing law and data, cutting through noise, and translating complex analytics into clear, client focused business decisions.
2. How do you translate complex legal and claims data into insights that support better risk decisions?
I tend to look for repeat patterns and what keeps causing problems. Claims and legal data get overwhelming fast, so I try to not get caught in the weeds which isn’t always easy. Instead of analyzing every little thing, I focus on the breakdowns, increased costs, and areas where expectations don’t always match reality. After a while, you start to identify patterns, and it helps clients make practical decisions. The goal is to help clients understand the connection between legal and claims data to make better decisions, and not just to impress people with complicated numbers and law.
3. What guides your judgment when evaluating litigation exposure or emerging insurance trends?
Right out of law school, I started in private practice representing carriers and reinsurers in litigation and coverage advice and analysis. I now work in-house at a national insurance brokerage, and the change in perspective has made me realize that risk looks very different depending on where you sit. I tend to pay attention to how similar issues have played out historically, how carriers are reacting, and how market conditions influence behavior and pricing. Staying on top of market trends is vital, from whatever perspective you’re looking in from.
4. How do you balance legal analysis with data-driven insights in high-stakes?
Both are excellent points, but don’t necessarily provide concrete answers. Legal analysis helps tells you what you can reasonably argue. Data analysis gives you an idea of the outcome of past similar situations. With complex coverage matters, my role has often involved helping clients understand the gap between these two things. For example, maybe a position is legally defensible/reasonable, but it still has a major business risk. On the other hand, sometimes alarming numbers don’t always translate into real exposure. Again, it’s all a balance.
5. What leadership practices help teams align legal strategy with analytical findings?
Try to keep the conversation tied to outcomes. Things sometimes go off track when discussions turn theoretical, or people start defending their work instead of focusing on what the data is supposed to support. When this happens, I try to pull everyone back to the same question: what does this mean for the client, and what business decision does it affect? When that’s the focus, it helps align legal strategy with analytics.
6. What advice would you give professionals aiming to build expertise in insurance litigation and analytics?
Get close to the work from more than one angle. I’ve worked in private practice representing carriers and reinsurers in litigation and coverage advice and analysis, and now in-house at an insurance brokerage, and each role changed how I think about risk. My background in business, law, and insurance helps me connect analysis to real decisions. Also, don’t underestimate the value of down-to earth communication. I even wrote an insurance humor book, Premium Punchlines, because sometimes humor is what gets people to engage in tough risk conversations instead of freaking out and shutting down.
