Rita C. Tobin is Of Counsel in Caplin & Drysdale's New York office and has been at the firm since 1998. Ms. Tobin's area of concentration is civil litigation, with special emphasis on representing tort claimant constituencies in mass tort bankruptcies and class actions.
Before joining Caplin and Drysdale, Ms. Tobin was an associate at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. Her work included representing an international banking concern in a two-year long contractual dispute regarding a real-estate loan, representing both debtors and creditors committees in corporate reorganizations, and assisting in an internal investigation conducted on behalf of a major securities firm. Her pro bono activities included representation of a death-row inmate that resulted in the reversal of his conviction and ultimate reduced sentence, and litigation on behalf of a high-profile New York City neighborhood organization regarding the quality of care afforded by New York State to the homeless mentally ill.
In September 2004, she was appointed to serve a three year term as a member of The International Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She completed that term in May 2007.
Prior to law school, Ms. Tobin earned a Ph.D. in English at Columbia University. While earning her degree, she was a preceptor in Columbia College, where she taught freshman composition and Literature Humanities, a year-long course in western literature and philosophy. She was an adjunct lecturer in English at Barnard College in 1986-87. Since September 2005 she has been an adjunct assistant professor of English at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she teaches courses in literary theory and law and literature.