Called to Bar of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1982, he practises as a barrister, and as a dispute resolver and international legal education consultant. In November, 1998, Mr. Tobin passed the oral and written examinations for Fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London, England.
He was an arbitration pupil under Harold Crowter, a former President of the CIARB. He has conducted hundreds of mediations in such areas as professional discipline; personal injury litigation; professional negligence; inter-organizational conflict; commercial leases; partnership disputes; business conflicts; construction disputes; and employer - employee conflicts.
By invitation of the University of Victoria, Canada, he designed and and taught a course on the topic of the Management of Public Disputes in its Masters in Public Adminstration programme. As an adjunct professor at the Simon Fraser University he designed and taught a full length semester course titled "Beyond the Courtroom- Alternative Justice Models".
He also designed and implemented a 30 hours advanced course for Mediator Training for the Justice Institute of British Columbia. One of the first of such training courses in Canada.
He is published, as co-author with Harold Crowter, in the International Journal of Arbitration, Vol 19 (4): "Ensuring that Arbitration Remains a Preferred Option for International Dispute Resolution".
He is also the author of "Conflict-resolution competencies for the construction professional", published in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Management, Procurement and Law, Volume 162, Issue 4, November 2009, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2009.162.4.181
He has designed and conducted advanced legal competency training courses or consultations in China, Bermuda, Canada, U.K., Australia, Fiji, St. Lucia, the Maldives, Hong Kong, Dubai, and the U.S.A., and given related papers at conferences in some of those countries and also in Bulgaria, Italy, and Hungary.
