Toobin began freelancing for The New Republic as a law student. He went on to become a law clerk to a federal judge and work as an associate counsel to Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh during the Iran-Contra affair and Oliver North's criminal trial, before becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn.[4] He then took up his post in 1993 at The New Yorker, and became the first television legal analyst in 1994, at ABC.
He currently is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a senior analyst for CNN since 2002, and the author of five books. Toobin's latest book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, has received awards from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.[5]
In 1994, Toobin broke the story in The New Yorker that the O. J. Simpson legal team planned on accusing Mark Furhman of planting evidence and playing "the race card."[5] In 2003, he secured the first interview with Martha Stewart in regards to the charges against her for insider trading.[6]
Toobin has provided broadcast legal analysis on many high-profile cases, including Michael Jackson, the O.J. Simpson civil trial and the Starr investigation of President Clinton. He received a 2000 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elián González custody saga.
Toobin is a longtime friend of Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan, having met her while the two were students at Harvard Law School.[7] He has described Chief Justice John Roberts as "very, very conservative."[8] Regarding Justice Clarence Thomas, Toobin has said that Thomas' legal views were "highly unusual and extreme", called him "a nut," and said that he was "furious all the time."[9] [10]
In March 2009, Politico revealed that Toobin was a member of the private discussion group JournoList, where "several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics" "talked stories and compared notes."[11][12]
