Prior to joining the law faculty in 1995, Professor Robertson practiced environmental law at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Professor Robertson's research focuses on urban environmental issues and rights of access to land. In particular, she has written about the demographic distribution of environmental risk and about legislative and other efforts to redevelop urban brownfields land. Professor Robertson has also written about EPA's quest for a policy concerning the use of data from research on human subjects, specifically in pesticide toxicity studies. Professor Robertson has written about the development of the fields of environmental ethics and bioethics, and more recently, about public rights of access to privately owned lands for recreation. Her focus in this area has been on comparing these rights in Scandinavia, continental Europe, and elsewhere.

Most recently, Professor Robertson has been researching and presenting on issues concerning the Gulf Coast oil spill and the regulation of oil and gas production in Ohio. Professor Robertson has served as a Risk Analysis Fellow in CSU's Program of Excellence in Risk Analysis. From 1999 to 2007, Professor Robertson served on the Board of Trustees of the Clean Air Conservancy, an environmental non-profit. She was a member of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Balanced Growth. In addition to her appointment to the law faculty, Professor Robertson is a member of the Environmental Studies faculty at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. She served as Associate Dean for Academic Enrichment from 2009-2014.