Robins broke into films as Peace Corps worker Marty Ellis in "A Walk on the Moon" and followed with "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (both 1987), in which she appeared as Steve Martin's wife. Her other feature credits are as Tom Selleck's stalwart wife in Peter Yates' "An Innocent Man" (1989) and "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael" (1990) as Winona Rider's guidance counselor. In 1995, she was Rachel, the slumber party attendee who is unhappily single, in "Live Nude Girls".
Robins has sporadically appeared on TV, starting with an episode of "The Equalizer" (CBS, 1988). In 1990, she was Victoria Heller, the lawyer who put James Earl Jones away and then hires him when he is released from prison on the short-lived "Gabriel's Fire" on ABC. Her TV-movies include "Dream Breakers" (CBS, 1989) and "Trial: The Price of Passion" (NBC, 1992) in which she was the calculating Charm Blackburn. In 1996, she made a memorable guest appearance on "Law and Order" (NBC) as the former assistant to and paramour of D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston).