Biography
Rhonda Tobin is the firm’s Managing Partner. She is a highly-regarded trial lawyer with significant experience in state and federal courts who has spent her entire 30-year career at Robinson+Cole. Her practice focuses on representing insurance companies in complex insurance coverage litigation, arbitration and mediation including claims seeking extracontractual remedies. Rhonda has been a member of Robinson+Cole’s Managing Committee since 2009 and co-chaired the firm’s 100-attorney Litigation Section from 2007 until she became Managing Partner in 2021.
Insurance Coverage Litigation
Rhonda's insurance coverage practice includes the litigation and arbitration of a broad range of coverage issues under commercial general liability, commercial property, directors’ and officers’ liability, professional liability and excess and surplus lines policies.
She has substantial experience in commercial property claims-related litigation, including high profile insurance coverage litigation arising out of the September 11 catastrophe. Rhonda represented a commercial property insurer in several multi-million dollar cases involving business interruption and property damage losses in the wake of the terrorist attack. She has significant coverage litigation and trial experience in connection with sexual abuse claims against religious institutions and schools, as well as coverage disputes involving claims arising out of the #MeToo Movement and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rhonda's reinsurance experience includes the arbitration and litigation of reinsurance disputes related to property and casualty and workers' compensation reinsurance.
Extracontractual Litigation
Rhonda also has significant experience advising clients about potential extracontractual exposure and defending cases alleging bad faith and unfair claim handling practices through trial. She has been retained on the eve of trial to take over the defense of a bad faith case, and is regularly retained to monitor claims to provide input on good faith claim-handling and settlement practices. She regularly trains and counsels her clients on good faith claim investigation and settlement practices, and is a frequent speaker at insurance industry programs on both coverage and claim handling.
Professional Liability Defense
Rhonda’s professional liability defense work includes defending claims against lawyers, accountants, insurance agents and brokers, financial planners, and other professionals. She has a record of successful outcomes on behalf of professionals who have been the target of such claims.
Rhonda is a Fellow in the highly-selective American College of Coverage Counsel. She was recognized by the National Law Journal as an Insurance Law Trailblazer in its inaugural listing in 2021. In addition, Rhonda was recognized in 2020 by Business Insurance as one of its 30 “Women to Watch” in North America, and by the Hartford Business Journal as one of its 15 “Women in Business” honorees. She has been listed as one of the Top 250 Women Litigators in the United States and a Local Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation since 2014 and included in the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list for 2007 and from 2017 to 2022.