Contact

Deborah Dixon

Gomez Trial Attorneys

655 W. Broadway, Suite 1700 

San Diego, CA 92101

619-929-9818

www.thegomezfirm.com

Deborah Dixon credits much of her expanded role at Gomez Trial Attorneys to her perseverance in the face of professional challenges. As of February, she is the Managing Partner of the firm’s Complex Department. 

The firm has about 50 professionals, from lawyers to staff with San Diego as the main office, but the firm has nearly ten offices in California. Clients of the Complex Department are individual persons who were harmed by a product or pharmaceutical drug or mass fraud/deception by a corporation. The department helps people who have been either physically or monetarily injured by a single product or event. Much of their practice focuses on corporations violating the law or manufacturing defective products. 

Dixon loves the idea of helping people in a focused litigation. It is a bit counter-intuitive, she says, but in the class actions she helps thousands and hundreds of thousands of people recover money, most of whom she never meets or has direct contact with at any time in the litigation. Class actions allow her and her team to get redress that victims could never get on their own and no other lawyer would do for them as an individual case. 

Her policy for her mass actions is to really get to know each client so their attorneys can tell their stories in a coordinated action before one judge. Otherwise, it would be very difficult and expensive for each client to bring a separate lawsuit against huge corporations. Large litigation is risky because it is high-stakes, expensive and years of litigation, but has a real impact for many people on an individual level. 

Dixon says, “Cases like these are what make me keep going. I get excited by the challenges I know will be coming in the day or in a case. Things like evaluating new cases, delving into the science or technology of some cases, evaluating if we’re in a position to help someone, prepping for depositions, getting ready for court—I really look forward to all of that.”

Earning National Attention in a Gender Discrimination Case

Dixon handled a gender discrimination case for a number of women working for a scientific institution with government connections. The case was the first of its kind and a case that garnered national attention, including coverage by the national news media.

“Those are the cases where resilience and perseverance pay off. I felt like my clients were brave and I needed to be that much more for them and to take as much as I could for them to shield them. Because it became so public and became national news, the events put my clients in the spotlight, which they never wanted. That case was a defining career moment that I appreciate every day as difficult as it was,” Dixon says.



The case took years to litigate. Dixon says that there was not single element of the case that was easy. “Ultimately, we were able to bring about change. That’s the kind of stuff that drives me. You bring about change. You make sure corporations and governments, and institutions are held responsible.”

Always an Advocate

“My mom said she knew I’d be an attorney. I was advocating for friends and relatives at an early age. I also developed a real love for debating. I knew I wanted to do that someday as a career,” Dixon says.

The desire to do something that allowed her to advocate on behalf of people stayed with her and began to blossom during her college years. She changed her major at UCSB to Law & Society. She also took pre-law classes and discovered she loved them. Dixon had a college Constitutional law class where the professor used the Socratic-method to call on students, like a law school class, and the subject matter and discussion intrigued her further. She decided to apply for law school. 

She worked as an intern in the Legal Aid Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic in college. There she saw what it was like in real life to represent a client and speak on behalf of someone in the courtroom. She earned her B.A. in Law and Society. One of her favorite activities was participating in the law school simulations class and observing actual court cases and seeing people advocating before the court. “I said, ‘Oh, no! I’m going to take the LSATs. I’m going to do this.’ Once I figured out that I wanted to be a lawyer, there was no other profession for me. That was it, I was all in, and have been ever since.”

Resilience and perseverance kept her motivated while earning her own way through college and California Western School of Law, where she earned her J.D. in 2007.

Her strong personality traits stem from childhood where people learn at an early age that challenges can be handled on one of two ways: avoiding them or overcoming and pushing through them. 



“Resilience is a mindset. For example, as a young associate, you either sink or swim. You can handle the litigation, or you can’t. I knew I wanted to forge that path, to become a well-known litigator. I’m still trying today. You’re going to face difficulties on the job, in the courtroom and in the society. You just have to show strength and push on through,” she says.

Dixon says a drive to work with the best and have opportunities to litigate large cases that impacted a lot of people brought her to Gomez Trial Attorneys. John Gomez, who has a national reputation for his trials and verdicts, was developing a complex litigation department to continue to litigate mass and class actions. She was excited to join him in 2015.

Taking on the Giants of Industry

Those personality traits and her skills as an effective advocate paid off in the firm’s class-action lawsuit against Apple, a case that was litigated for more than seven years. The case related to a defect in the iPhone 4,5 and 5s and was heavily litigated and a difficult and complex challenge. Apple had excellent attorneys both in-house and outside counsel. Apple also is a huge corporation that had infinite resources to expend in defending its product. 

Their case was one of the first class-actions to ever be certified against Apple relating to a defect in its iPhone. The case resolved within weeks of trial. The firm’s attorneys were actively preparing for trial when they were able to reach a $20 million settlement. That wasn’t the end of the process. The day before final approval hearing, allowing resolution of the litigation, the courts completely shut down because of COVID-19. 

“We continued to persevere and got final approval as soon as the courts reopened and minimized the delay to getting the class paid as much as we could. High stakes litigation like class actions against Apple drive us to be the best and get the results for our clients,” Dixon says.

Dixon’s work often involves working with referrals. The firm offers generous referral fees but more important, she says, is that when attorneys refer a case, they will be putting their clients in the best hands possible. She and her team take pride in providing the best possible client experience. Her policy, and that of the firm, is to treat every client as a member of the family. “Many of our referral partners know that when they refer us a case, that we will fight as long and hard as needed to make sure their client is well taken care of to the very end. Our firm has won more than $750 million dollars in awards and settlements for its clients, which is remarkable.”

Dixon says they can take cases many lawyers would not because they have a team that is efficient, resourceful, and extraordinarily talented. Equally important, they are not scared off by the huge corporations they go against. 



“We are not afraid to take case to trial, even mass and class actions, and we know how to effectively litigate for our clients, but we do not lose the personal touch. We know our clients, their stories, and the way they have been harmed. We do not forget why we are bringing a case—we know the real impact it has had on our clients, even if in the class case, where we have not met many of the people injured, we still know the importance of standing up to big corporations who have done wrong,” she says.

Committed to Her Professional and Civic Community

Dixon moved to San Diego in 2004 to attend law school and never left. “San Diego is my hometown now.” 

She is personally active in her professional community. She is a director of the San Diego County Bar Foundation, and the San Diego Inns of Court; a member of the Lawyer’s Club Advisory Board; was selected a Lawyer Representative to serve the United States District Court for the Southern District of California; is a past president of the Lawyers Club of San Diego; served for three years as a Director on Lawyers Club’s Board of Directors; served as a co-chair for Fund for Justice, the Lawyers Club’s non-profit; served as the President of the Alumni Association Board of Directors; is an adjunct professor of trial skills for the Distinguished Advocates Trial Skills class; and an adjunct to Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Dixon is the middle sister of five sisters. They started a charitable foundation in 2020 called Sisters Rise Together. The mission statement is to raise money and give money to charities in California that are addressing, educating, and eliminating discrimination and violence against women in all its forms. 



Her commitment to reliance and perseverance has not waned and in fact has gotten stronger each year and with every case and experience. “Everyone has struggles and hardships. This practice is difficult and demanding. Even though I had to figure out how to support myself and pay for college and law school, I knew it was an investment in my future and one that I was willing to make. I refused to give up because I wanted to be part of this amazing profession that allows us to represent people and causes. I hope my example here will help open doors and raises awareness for women in positions like that across San Diego and the country,” Dixon says.

Experience

» Education

• B.A. UC Santa Barbara – Law and Society Major
• J.D. California Western School of Law

» Recognitions

• Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers 2016-2020 
• Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2014 and 2015. 
• Named by San Diego Metro Magazine as one of the best and brightest in San Diego in its “40 Under 40” designation, 2014.
• “Best of the Bar” since 2014. The San Diego 
• Business Journal
• Recognized by the San Diego Daily Transcript as a
• Top Attorney in 2015 and the 2012 Top Young Attorney, and as a 2012 Woman of Influence. 
• Rising Star Alumni of the Year by California Western School of Law.
• Director with the San Diego County Bar Foundation and San Diego Inns of Court.
• Selected Lawyer Representative to serve the 
• United States District Court for the Southern 
• District of California. 
• Past president of Lawyers Club of San Diego
• Served as a co-chair for Fund for Justice, Lawyers Club’s non-profit.
• Served on the California Western School of Law Alumni Association Board and was President from 2015-2016.
• Active in mentoring your lawyers and law students.
• Served as an adjunct professor of trial skills and an adjunct in Alternative Dispute