Max Dehon

Max Dehon represents catastrophically injured individuals and their families.  He has assisted in the recovery of tens of millions of dollars for clients, beginning as a law clerk at SMB.  Max primarily represents victims of mass disasters, construction and workplace accidents, propane and natural gas explosions, electrical accidents, and accidents resulting from defective or malfunctioning products.  Within his first month of returning to SMB full-time after graduating law school, Max was a part of the SMB trial teams that secured a $5 million verdict for a worker who was injured in a construction accident and a $10.6 million product liability verdict against a global manufacturer on behalf of a quarry worker injured by a stone crushing machine.

Max’s path to becoming a trial attorney started early. Growing up in Kansas City, both of Max’s parents are attorneys. Max had many opportunities to go to work with his parents and is no stranger to the courtroom.  Because of these early experiences, Max chose to attend Temple University Beasley School of Law in order to participate in Temple’s storied trial advocacy program, where he was a James E. Beasley Scholar and Rom Dombrowski Sports Law Scholar.  While there, Max obtained a certificate in and received numerous accolades in trial advocacy and served as the teaching assistant for fellow SMB attorney Kristen Feden’s trial advocacy class.  During law school, Max served as an intern with the United States Attorneys’ Office and the City of Philadelphia Tort Litigation Unit.  While at the United States Attorneys’ Office, Max conducted depositions and assisted US Attorneys with all aspects of litigation in cases involving personal injury, contract disputes, and employment law. Max also successfully represented the City of Philadelphia in the Court of Common Pleas, culminating in the opportunity to lead a litigation effort where Max gave the opening statement, closing argument, cross-examined witnesses, and ultimately obtained a complete victory on behalf of the City of Philadelphia. Prior to joining SMB as a law clerk, Max completed clerkships with a regional defense firm and a Philadelphia based personal injury firm focusing on toxic and mass torts.

In his final year of law school, Max authored a primer on tort compensation for those who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes in Pennsylvania.  Max’s work was ultimately adopted by state legislators and incorporated into Pennsylvania law and will serve to carve out more pathways in the civil justice system to remedy wrongful convictions. Max also served as Vice President of the Temple Law Student Bar Association and was a student member of the Temple American Inn of Court, of which he remains a member.  During his second year of law school, Max served as a teaching assistant for Temple’s First Amendment class.  In his last year of law school, Max was asked to represent Temple as part of their first-ever Sports Negotiation Team.  Max won the inaugural Villanova Law Baseball Filing Day Competition and was invited to compete in the historic Tulane Law School International Baseball Competition.

Max is active in the Philadelphia legal community where he is a member of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and serves as a law student mentor for the Temple American Inn of Court.  Additionally, Max is a contributing author to the latest edition of Pennsylvania Causes of Action, published by the Legal Intelligencer.

Prior to pursuing his Juris Doctor, Max attended Lafayette College and Denison University, where he graduated with honors in 2020.  While at both Lafayette and Denison, Max competed on the varsity baseball teams and was a member of multiple conference championship teams and experienced NCAA championship competition.