Meet The Team
Deborah Dixon
Deborah Dixon is a founding partner of The Dixon Firm. Her practice focuses on class and mass actions relating to defective products and fraud. Deborah also concentrates her practice on employee gender discrimination and harassment actions, as well as additional employee claims. In addition to filing claims on behalf of employees, Deborah frequently advises employers on best practices to avoid lawsuits and presents on the importance of inclusivity in the workplace. Deborah actively litigates cases in state and federal court, completed several multi-week jury and bench trials in both federal and state courts as well as arbitrations.
Deborah also serves as the General Counsel for the Los Angeles Chargers, acting as the lead lawyer for the NFL team.
Deborah is the current President of the San Diego County Bar Foundation. She previously served a three-year appointed term as a Lawyer Representative to the United States District Court for the Southern District. She is the past-president of Lawyers Club of San Diego, and past-chair of several committees including its nonprofit. She is also the past president of Alumni Association Board of Directors for California Western School of Law, where she has been an adjunct professor in multiple courses relating to trial advocacy and alternative dispute resolution. Deborah serves as the Vice President of the San Diego Inn of Court, and has been a workshop leader for evidence and trial programs for years. She is a Master with the Welsh Inn of Court.
Deborah is a frequent speaker on litigation topics, including for the American Bar Association, American Association for Justice, Consumer Attorneys of California, Mass Torts Made Perfect, San Diego County Bar Association and Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, among others.
Email: Ddixon@thedixonfirm.com
Gerissa Conforti
Gerissa Conforti brings her years of litigation experience as the firm’s commercial and business litigation partner and is an integral attorney within the class action and mass torts department.
With extensive experience litigating cases in state and federal court, Gerissa has represented several Fortune 500 companies and global enterprises in complex business disputes ranging from fraud, breach of contract, commercial real estate disputes, products liability, and premises liability, to general liability issues, among others. She has represented hundreds of individuals in investigations and prosecutions by state and federal agencies and has been lead defense counsel in nearly 50 federal criminal cases in the Southern District of California.
She currently serves as outside general counsel for several startup companies, commercial and multifamily residential landlords and other businesses, providing strategic guidance on risk management, compliance matters, real property acquisitions, and lease negotiations. She also provides advice on a wide variety of contract and business issues, and represents her clients’ interests in all stages of litigation. Her work on behalf of individuals focuses on class actions, mass torts and complex multidistrict litigation, advocating for those who have been injured by a defective product or harmed as a result of negligible or wrongful conduct.
Gerissa completed her undergraduate degree from University of California, Riverside, graduating cum laude in 2006. She earned both her Juris Doctorate (2009) and Masters of Law in Trial Advocacy (2011) from California Western School of Law, where she received multiple awards and accolades for her academic performance and trial advocacy. She was selected to the San Diego Business Journal’s “Best of the Bar” list, honoring lawyers chosen as the most outstanding in their field, and has been nominated for both the Young Attorneys for the San Diego Daily Transcript and Outstanding Young Attorneys for UT San Diego. She served six years on the Board of Directors for California Western School of Law Alumni Association (2012-2018), and the Board of Directors for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (2012-2015), chairing various committees and serving in leadership positions. She continues to serve the legal community and maintains active involvement in a number of organizations.
Email: Gerissa@thedixonfirm.com
Bridget Hulburt
At California Western, Bridget received numerous academic excellence awards for receiving the top grade in the class, including in Trial Skills Training for Distinguished Advocates, Contracts II, and Community Law Project courses. Because of her award in her Contracts II course, she was offered a Teaching Fellow position to mentor and tutor first-year Contracts students. Also following her Community Law Project award, Bridget continued working as the Student Manager, helping train and coordinate new clinical externs for the free legal clinics several nights a week in local San Diego neighborhoods.
Additionally, she has been an active member of Lawyers Club of San Diego for years, and plans to continue to immerse herself in the legal community.
Email: Bridget@thedixonfirm.com
Allison C. Worden
Allison C. Worden focuses her practice on helping victims of catastrophic personal injuries. She brings to the firm tremendous trial experience having tried over 100 cases to jury verdict and another 25 bench trials in her 23 years of practice. Prior to joining the Dixon Firm, Allison served as a Deputy District Attorney in San Diego for 13 years before she transitioned to civil litigation, where she has dedicated the past 10 years to obtaining civil justice for her clients. As a Prosecutor, Allison investigated and prosecuted all levels of crime including child abuse and molest, domestic violence, elder abuse, sexual assault, vehicular crimes, fraud, property crimes, assault, robbery, gangs, homicides and capital cases. She took this experience to the civil courtroom where she has consistently held large corporations, Ride Share Operators, School Districts, Public Entities, and individual wrongdoers accountable.
Allison earned her Bachelor’s Degree and Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego. While an undergraduate, Allison was named to the West Coast Conference All-Conference Team as a soccer goalkeeper four years in a row, and was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions her senior year after being ranked nationally as a top five goalkeeper. Allison has served an Adjunct Professor for the University of San Diego’s Political Science Department and remains actively involved with the school’s Athletic Department.
Giving back to the legal community in which she works is very important to Allison. She is a past-president of The San Diego Inn of Court, where she served on the Board of Directors for 15 years, and currently volunteers as an Instructor and Workshop Leader for the San Diego Inn of Court Colleges of Evidence and Trial Advocacy Programs. Most importantly, however, Allison loves spending every free moment with her husband Evan and their two incredible children, Avery and David.
Email: Allison@thedixonfirm.com
Max Halpern
Max Halpern is an attorney at The Dixon Firm and specializes in litigating catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, and sexual assault cases. Max actively litigates cases in both state and federal court, having completed several jury trials and arbitrations over the course of his career.
From 2019 -2023, Max personally worked on cases that resulted in recoveries totaling over 100 million dollars, including complex mass tort litigation, serious personal injury, wrongful death, and the representation of numerous victims of sexual assault and abuse.
Max received his law degree from the University of San Diego, cum laude, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of California San Diego.
Fluent in Spanish, Max works with Spanish-speaking clients at the firm. Prior to his legal career, Max studied Spanish through the University of California Education Abroad Program in Córdoba, Spain and lived in Madrid for two years working in the Auxiliar de Conversación program through Spain’s Ministry of Education.
Max has been recognized as a Super Lawyer Rising Star, and in 2022 Max was named by the San Diego Metro Magazine in its “40 under 40” designation. In 2024, Max was elected to the San Diego Inn of Court Board of Directors, and he currently serves on the Advisory Board of a nonprofit, ArtReach, an organization that provides collaborative visual art programs for underserved youth throughout San Diego County. Outside of his law practice, Max enjoys going to the beach, film, literature, and playing basketball and tennis.
Email: Max@thedixonfirm.com
Tarina Mand
Tarina Mand is Of Counsel at The Dixon Firm representing plaintiffs in complex litigation matters, including class action and mass tort cases, as well as employment matters including discrimination, harassment, and assault. She actively litigates cases in both Superior Court and Federal Court, including jury trials in federal and state court.
Tarina is a leader within the community, advocating for inclusion and equality. She was the co-chair of the Women’s Advocacy Committee for Lawyers Club, and as former two-term President of the South Asian Bar Association of San Diego she launched the Equal Pay Transparency Initiative. She also serves as the co-chair for the Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee for the Federal Bar Association. She previously served on of the San Diego County Bar Association Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, as well as the County Bar Leadership and Outreach Committee. She became one of the first members of the newly launched California Judges Association’s Committee on Law Student Wellness & Ethics, and currently helps mentor law students through Lawyers Club Mentorship Connection Program. She also provides pro bono legal services to veterans and victims of human and civil rights violations.
Tarina earned her Bachelor of Arts in Literature from the University of California, San Diego. She received her Juris Doctorate at California Western School of Law where she received the Distinguished Student Award in 2016, receiving a scholastic scholarship every year.
Featured Speaking and Articles:
Wellness & Anti-Racism Roundtable.
Facilitator | SAN DIEGO COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION, NOV 2020
Reproductive Justice Amidst a Global Pandemic.
Moderator | LAWYERS CLUB OF SAN DIEGO, SEP 2020
Ethics & Wellness – An Introspect Approach.
Speaker | USD SCHOOL OF LAW, SEP 2020
Women in the Law.
Panelist | UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO, FEB 2020
Exploring Options in Civil Law.
Panelist | CALIFORNIA WESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW, OCT 2019
Equal Pay Transparency Initiative: Harnessing community data to close the wage gap. SAN DIEGO COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION | NOVEMBER 2021
Measure B – Police reform with a little more teeth to protect women from officer misconduct. LAWYERS CLUB NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2020
Roe v. Wade may not see its 47th birthday: Reproductive freedom being reserved for the economically privileged. LAWYERS CLUB NEWSLETTER | JUNE 2019
Department of Homeland Security’s proposed “Public Charge” regulation threatens to disproportionately impact the health and general welfare of women and children. LAWYERS CLUB NEWSLETTER | MARCH 2019
Will California’s cannabis regulation limit commercial activity between licensed and unlicensed entities? THE NATIONAL LAW REVIEW | JD SUPRA | DECEMBER 2018
The U.S. Supreme Court strikes back abortion rights under California’s Reproductive FACT Act (Assembly Bill No. 775). LAWYERS CLUB NEWLETTER | SEPTEMBER 2018
Kelly McDaniel
Kelly McDaniel is a Senior Paralegal at The Dixon Firm. Kelly specializes in complex litigation matters, including preparing filings in every jurisdiction as well as multi-district litigation and judicially coordinated complex proceedings, and has been the lead paralegal on federal and state class action jury trials. Kelly is a vital member of the firm, managing all aspects of the litigation support for all the cases. Kelly graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration. She then attended the University of San Diego’s Paralegal program where she completed the program with honors and began working as a paralegal in 2007.
In her spare time, Kelly enjoys spending time with her family, hiking with her dogs, and completing DIY projects on her home with her husband.
Lisa Cox
Lisa Cox is a civil litigation paralegal and notary public. In 1990, Lisa obtained an AA Degree in Paralegal Studies from Kelsey-Jenney Business College, graduating number one in her class. For the past 34 years, she has specialized in personal injury, employment law, class actions, medical malpractice, commercial litigation and complex business litigation. She has vast experience having worked at Gomez Trial Attorneys, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, Chapin Fitzgerald & Sullivan, Latham & Watkins, Gordon & Rees, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, as well as Grace, Brandon, Hollis & Ramirez, Monaghan & Strauss, and Ault, Deuprey, Jones and Gorman.
Lisa volunteers her time in the community, having served on numerous committees for Consumer Attorneys of San Diego and Lawyers Club of San Diego, the San Diego Met High School Mentor Advisory Board and San Diego County Bar Association’s Children At Risk Committee.
In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her daughter Everly, riding her Peloton, and playing softball.
Julia Collins
Julia Collins is a client liaison and legal assistant at The Dixon Firm. She has worked with the team for years to help obtain compensation for hundreds of clients devastated by utility-caused fires, in addition to class actions and mass torts.
Prior to joining The Dixon Firm, Julia had years of customer service and medical training in hospitals, working with cancer patients and conducting otoacoustic emission tests on infants to detect hearing loss at birth. Julia served in the United States Marine Corps, including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.