About Katherine C.
Katherine C. Donlon trained first as an international business undergraduate and then as a lawyer. She earned a B.A. in International Business from Birmingham-Southern College in 1989 and a J.D. from Washington & Lee University in 1994. Those two educations sit at the root of a practice that blends corporate law, securities matters and complex federal work.
After law school she moved into practice in the Southeast, qualifying to practice in both Florida and Alabama. Over the years her work has crossed private-client representation, regulatory interactions and litigation in federal courts. She has long been involved in matters where business structures and regulatory regimes meet, including transactions and enforcement-related engagements.
Her professional life includes a long record of bar and industry leadership. She served as chair of a Business Law Section and has held the presidency of the Florida Securities Dealers Association. She is a past president of a chapter of the Federal Bar Association and maintains membership in the Hillsborough County Bar Association. Those roles required organizing CLEs, leading committees and engaging with regulators and judges; they also offered a platform to shape local practice priorities.
Donlon is active in industry organizations beyond the bar. She sits with the Florida securities community and participates in Southeastern Women in Financial Services. She is a full member of the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers, a group that brings together practitioners who handle court-appointed receiverships. That connection reflects a significant portion of her practice: work in receiverships and related federal appointments.
She practices at Johnson, Newlon & DeCort, P.A., where her portfolio includes corporate governance questions, securities compliance and disputes, and the handling of receivership matters in federal court. Her files tend to combine transactional drafting, regulatory filings and contested proceedings. Clients range from small private businesses to financial services entities facing regulatory scrutiny.
Colleagues describe her as someone who balances technical detail and practical outcomes. She moves between drafting contracts and arguing procedural matters in court. That versatility is visible in her engagement with bar sections and industry groups. She also participates in Leadership Tampa and other civic circles, which connect legal practice to the broader business community.
She remains an active member of professional associations and continues to take on cases that raise corporate, securities or federal receivership issues. Her current practice concentrates on corporate and securities matters, federal receiverships, and related regulatory work.
