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.  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 Publications Board.

Ms. Dixon was just named 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” for Corporate Compliance Law in Washington, D.C. by Best Lawyers in America.  Her expertise in a variety of practice areas has been recognized in such publications as Who’s Who Legal (2013 – 2016, Corporate -- M&A and Governance), Best Lawyers in America (2005-2017, Securities/Capital Markets Law, Securities Regulation, Corporate Compliance Law, Corporate Governance Law), and Washington DC Super Lawyers (2013 – 2015, Securities and Corporate Finance).

Ms. Dixon graduated cum laude from Creighton University with a Bachelor of Science (1977), and magna cum laude from its law school (1980).  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.