Ian M. Dixon is an Australian lawyer based in Melbourne whose career spans more than four decades in workplace relations, commercial litigation and corporate governance. He became a partner in several Melbourne-based law firms before joining the Australian Industry Group as a legal practitioner director.
Background
Dixon came from a country background, and his university studies took place in Melbourne. According to a profile published after he joined the Australian Industry Group, he started work at the age of 14, pumping petrol and washing windscreens for his basketball coach. The profile links that early initiative to his later rise to partnership.
He began legal practice in the 1970s, a period marked by a high level of industrial strike activity in Australia. The profile says this environment inspired him to make workplace relations his area of specialisation.
Education
Dixon studied at the University of Melbourne, completing a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and a Bachelor of Commerce, both in 1974. Founded in 1853, the University of Melbourne was the first university established in the Australian colony of Victoria, and it has long been a leading centre of legal and commercial education in the state.
He was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1976, and his legal career followed directly from these qualifications.
Career
Dixon began his legal career in the 1970s with Westgarth Middletons, known in his early career as Middletons, a firm that is now part of K&L Gates. In his early years there he advocated for the Australian Commonwealth Steamship Association, travelling frequently to represent its members across the country.
He became a partner of Westgarth Middletons at about the age of 28 and remained in that role for roughly eleven years. In 1991 he joined Baker McKenzie as a partner, a position he held until 2006. Baker McKenzie was founded in Chicago in 1949 by Russell Baker and John McKenzie, and it grew into one of the world's largest law firms, becoming the first global firm to employ 1,000 lawyers in 1987.
From 2007 to 2020 Dixon was a partner at Gadens. The Australian firm, which traces its history to 1847, was the first Australian law firm to establish a multi-disciplinary practice, and its work centres on corporate and commercial law, property transactions, debt recovery and banking.
In 2020 he moved to the Australian Industry Group, an employers' organisation whose origins trace back to 1873 and which took its present form through a 1998 merger. He became a Legal Practitioner Director there, bringing expertise in workplace relations, corporate governance and commercial litigation.
Membership
Dixon has served extensively on the board of Richmond Football Club, an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne.
Personality
He describes himself primarily as a provider of solutions.
