Tobin has worked for the Wisconsin State Public Defender (SPD) since 1979, except for two years in the mid-1980s. He started as a staff attorney in the Shell Lake office in 1979 and moved to Eau Claire in 1980. Tobin left the agency in 1984 to teach legal writing and professional responsibility at the University of Puget Sound Law School in Tacoma, Wash., before returning to the SPD in 1986 as first assistant state public defender for 10 counties in western Wisconsin. He has served as the director of the SPD Trial Division since 1994.

Tobin earned his undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College and his law degree at the University of Texas at Austin. He has spoken at numerous SPD training programs and authored four supplements to the Wisconsin Criminal Defense Manual, published by the state bar. He served on the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission from its inception in 2003 until its sunset in 2007. He has also served on the State Courts’ Policy and Planning Advisory Committee since 2001. Tobin has co-taught criminal procedure and criminal law courses at the University of Wisconsin Law School since 1998. He is also vice chair of the state bar’s Law-Related Education Committee. In 2006, Tobin was honored by the state bar as Volunteer Lawyer of the Year and Author of the Year.