Biography
Catherine Dixon is a partner in Weil’s Washington, D.C. office and a recognized authority on the federal securities laws, as amended over the past decade by the JOBS Act of 2012, the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Her practice encompasses public and private company disclosure advice, capital markets transactions (including public and private offerings), mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and compliance-related matters. Ms. Dixon is a member of Weil’s Public Company Advisory Group.
Prior to joining Weil, Ms. Dixon was Chief Counsel of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She previously served as Chief of that Division’s Offices of Mergers & Acquisitions and Disclosure Policy (rulemaking), respectively, and as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Steven M.H. Wallman. She also served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (through the Department’s Honors Program), before joining the SEC in the appellate litigation section of the Office of the General Counsel.
Ms. Dixon frequently speaks and writes on various federal securities laws topics and is a regular contributor to Weil’s Governance & Securities Watch. She is co-author of a well-known treatise on the federal proxy rules, Aranow and Einhorn on Proxy Contests for Corporate Control (3d ed., with Randall Thomas). Ms. Dixon also has taught a course on mergers & acquisitions at Georgetown University Law School, as an adjunct faculty member. She is the immediate former Chair, and a current member, of the American Bar Association (ABA) Business Law Section's Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities, after serving successive terms as Committee Vice-Chair, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee’s Securities Registration Subcommittee and Co-Chair of this Committee’s Ad Hoc Task Force on Cross-Border Mergers & Acquisitions. Ms. Dixon is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and is a member of the ABA Business Law Section’s Publication Board.
Ms. Dixon has been recognized as a “Best Lawyer” for Corporate Compliance Law, Corporate Governance Law, Securities/Capital Markets Law and Securities Regulation (2007-2021) and was named “Lawyer of the Year” for Corporate Compliance (2017) in Washington, D.C. by Best Lawyers in America. She has also been recognized by Who’s Who Legal in Governance and M&A (2013-2020) and Super Lawyers in Securities and Corporate Finance (2020, 2015, 2014, 2013).
Ms. Dixon received her J.D., magna cum laude, and her B.S., cum laude, from Creighton University. After law school, Ms. Dixon clerked for the Honorable William C. Stuart, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, and the Honorable Henry A. Politz, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She is a member of the District of Columbia and Iowa Bar Associations.