Maxime Van Den Dijssel, Trainee Solicitor

"Hi, I'm Maxime Van Den Dijssel. I'm a Trainee Solicitor here at Brandsmiths. So I joined Brandsmiths in August 2022, so I haven't been here for that long. My experience has been really good so far. The work is really varied and that's what attracts me to a lot of the work. You never really know what you're going to get in a day - I can be working on a contract in the morning, and then a defamation case in the afternoon, to a copyright infringement case later on! I think that's what keeps me really entertained.

I've worked on a handful of CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) cases, most of those cases have been in the football industry.

CAS is quite unique in its structure in that a lot of sports governing bodies (like FIFA) will have the Court of Arbitration for Sport as the final appeals body for any of the internal decisions that are handed down. Which means I've been involved in quite a few FIFA related appeals. 

I've worked on a match fixing case, to an employment dispute related to a work permit, to a termination for unjustified absence, and an unauthorised medical treatment. The work itself is extremely varied, although it's all related to football disputes.

Sports law in general is extremely unique, and it functions in a different realm than the stuff that normal lawyers (or normal litigation) would work on. It requires you to know all of the regulations of a specific sports governing body, and the underlying law on top of that. So you might be a UK lawyer and will learn some of the underlying principles of Swiss law. And because of this international, multi jurisdictional nature, and these specific demands that sports law requires, in order to have a legal team that can properly advise you on those sports matters. It's really important to have someone that has the background and the experience either within that specific sport or has special within sports arbitration.

That is one of the great benefits of Brandsmiths - we've got associates who have been sports agents, who have done CAS arbitration, or FIFA arbitration.

Because those procedures are so different than what would happen within a national court, it's really important to have someone that understands those demands. And that's one of the great benefits of going to Brandsmiths, especially the Brandsmiths sports team, because that experience is there."