Deputy General Counsel

Irma Robins has served as University Counsel since 2003 and was appointed Deputy General Counsel in 2017. Robins advises on Academic and Student Affairs, Clinical and Basic Research, Intellectual Property, Data Privacy and Security, and other matters.

Prior to her legal career, Robins received an MBA degree from Pace University. Her business experience includes professional positions in publishing, marketing, operations management, and technology innovation, for commercial enterprises and municipal government in New York City. In Maryland, she joined a business consulting firm where she was a project manager with programmer/analyst teams engaged in software development and product implementation for clients in publishing, transportation, insurance, and finance.

Robins’ pro bono service includes work with Charm City Clinic, National Council of University Research Administrators, Care for Your Health, Inc., and Experiential Environmental Education/The Green School of Baltimore. She has been invited to present on topics including Export Control and Trade Embargo for Academic Medical Centers, Responsible Conduct of Research and HIPAA, and was a panelist for the University of Maryland School of Law/Women’s Bar Association’s program, “Rising Stars in Corporate Governance.”

Robins graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, Carey School of Law. She was an Associate Editor of “The Business Lawyer” and received the John S. Strahorn, Jr. Memorial Prize for the student most proficient in the law of Evidence. She served as Law Clerk to the Office of General Counsel and Office of Technology Transfer at Johns Hopkins University; Trademark Attorney Advisor Clerk at the US Patent and Trademark Office; Law Clerk at the State of Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings; and was a Law & Entrepreneurship Fellow at the Baltimore firm of Shapiro & Olander. Post-graduate, Ms. Robins was a legal Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where she advised on inventorship, federal regulation of technology transfer, licensing federal trademarks and public information law.