Jean-Pierre De Bandt

Jean-Pierre De Bandt

Baron Jean-Pierre de Bandt (born Antwerp, 23 January 1934) is a Belgian lawyer and was the President of the Coudenberg group, a Belgian federalist think tank.

Education

From 1951 until 1953, he studied at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) after which he graduated as

• doctor of law at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1956
• master in economics at the same university in 1959
• Master of Law at Harvard Law School in 1960.
• master in political and social sciences at the University of Leuven in 1961.

Career

He started his career in 1961 as a member of the Antwerp Bar (1956) then joined the american lawfirm Frank Boas Law Office in 1961 in Brussels, to become a partner in 1966.

He was also lecturer at the Hoger Instituut voor Bestuurswetenschappen (University of Antwerp ) (1962 - 1972)

He started his own lawfirm on july 1, 1969. He was during 20 years Chairman and Managing Partner of what became De Bandt, van Hecke & Lagae. It was the first lawfirm in Belgium organized along the structure and lines of law partnerships in the United States and Great-Britain. (partnership, full integration of revenues, special status of associates moving to partnership etc.)

The firm merged in 1999 with the Luxemburg firm Loesch & Wolter to become De Bandt, van Hecke, Lagae & Loesch and finally merged in 2002 with the London city firm Linklaters & Paines to become De Bandt & Linklaters. Jean-Pierre de Bandt became Senior counsel of the merged firm.

At the time of the merger with Linklaters, De Bandt van Hecke & Lagae was, with more than 200 full time lawyers , the largest firm of sollicitors ("avocats-advocaten") in Belgium.

Other activities

De Bandt was director of several commercial companies and was chairman of the Board of:

• Wang Europe SA,
• Robert Bosch Belgium SA,
• Océ interservices SA,
• Telenorma SA,
• Guylian NV,
• Alcopa NV.

Cultural and civic activities

• chairman of the Philharmonic Society of Brussels (1991- 2002),
• chairman of the Mont des Arts - Kunstberg society (1999 - 2007),
• chairman and member of the management committee of the Music chapel Queen Elisabeth (2002 -2007),
• chairman of the Contius Foundation which is in the process of building an organ in the St Michael church in Leuven. It aims at copying the last organ left by the organ-builder Heinrich Andreas Contius in Lipaya (Latvia). Contius was the preferred organ-builder of Johann Sebastian Bach.
• chairman of the Museum Prize.

He was the founder and chairman of a large civic society "The Coudenberg Group" and the "Interuniversity Center for the study of Federalism" (1984-1998), both centered on the institutional future of Belgium.

He was chairman of two foundations at the University of Namur:

• Ceruna (Centre d'étude et de recherche universitaire de Namur) and
• Institut Moretus Plantin (1990- 2009)

Further he was:

• chairman of the Harvard Club of Belgium.
• director and general secetary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium (1975-1985)

He is a director of the Poelaert Foundation which aims at promoting a full renovation of the Palace of Justice in Brussels, called Poelaert by the name of its architect, which at the time of its inauguration (1886) was considered as the largest building in the world and is one of the architectural masterpieces of the late 19th century.

Various

• De Bandt was knighted (chevalier-ridder) and granted hereditary nobility by King Baudouin on July 16, 1993. He was awarded the title of baron by King Albert II on June 15, 2009.
• He was military champion of Belgium of 100m butterfly in 1959.
• He was legal arbitrator, acting for the Olympic Committee, at the Beijing games of 2008.

Bibliography

In addition to many legal articles on business law and constitutional law, he published a series of books :

• Business Guide to Belgium, Common market Report, Commerce Clearing House, Chicago, 1967.
• Quelle Belgique pour demain, Ed.Duculot,1987.
• Naar een nieuw Belgïe, Lannoo, 1987.
• The Belgian Constitution and Constitutional development. An introduction to an exhaustive bibliography, Center for the study of federalism, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, 1987.
• The new Belgian institutional framework, Center for the study of federalism, Brussels, 1989.
• Kopen en verkopen van een onderneming. Juridische aspecten, Cegos, 1990.
• L'achat et la vente d'une entreprise, implications juridiques, Cegos, 1990.
• In naam van de democratie, (in collaboration), Roularta Books, 1990.
• Federalisme et territorialité - Réflexions en marge de la troisième phase de la réforme de l'état, Centre d'étude du Fédéralisme, Brussels, 1991.
• Federalisme en territorialiteit, Studiecentrum voor Federalisme, Brussels, 1991.
• Au nom de la démocratie", (in collaboration), Roularta books.
• International Corporate Procedures, Jordans, 1992.
• Democracy and the rule of law. The Primacy of Community law. The Belgian federalisation process. Belgian and EC membership evaluated, Pinter Publishers, London, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992.
• Cost of non-belgium. De meerwaarde van het federaal Belgïe" (in collaboration), Roularta books, 1996.
• Cost of non-Belgium. La valeur ajoutée de la Belgique Fédérale ", (in collaboration), Roularta Books, 1996.

Sources

• Board of Management of the Queen Elisabeth Music Foundation
• Rik DECAN, Wie is Wie in Vlaanderen, 2000.
• Oscar COOMANS DE BRACHÈNE, État présent de la noblesse belge, Annuaire 2003, Brussel, 2003.
• HUMBERT MARNIX DE SAINTE ALDEGONDE, État présent de la noblesse belge, Annuaire 2015, Faveurs nobiliaires accordées par Sa Majesté le Roi Albert II, Brussels, 2015.