Practice areas
Hans specialises in matters that require a thorough knowledge of both technical aspects and legal issues. He supported the creation of the current legislation on electronic identification and trust services (including electronic signatures, electronic stamps and time stamps), and advises both governments and private companies on the correct application of the law, and on the necessary contractual framework. He supported multiple projects relating to the issuance and management of smart cards and PKI infrastructure, and around mobile identification.
Hans also provides legal assistance in software development and data exploitation initiatives, including open source software development and open data applications. He has extensive experience in the re-use of public sector information, and is familiar with all common open source licenses. In addition, he has carried out projects on setting up data warehouses, data lakes, and big data analytics, as well as on AI services based on such data sources.
He is a frequently consulted expert for both national and international governments and companies on cloud computing, information security and certification services, and has worked on e-government projects on digital archiving, electronic identification and electronic signatures, privacy protection, free flow of data, electronic communication via e-boxes, and data exchange via the only-once principle. For over 15 years he has been involved in pioneering research projects, including studies for the European Commission and for various European agencies, and in Horizon2020 initiatives.
With regard to data protection and privacy protection, Hans supports companies in all their compliance activities, including audits, data transfers/data sharing, impact assessments, settlement of data breaches, and assists companies in specialized sectors, including health tech, fintech, data analytics, and the public sector.
Academic activities and memberships
Hans is a guest lecturer on ICT and privacy protection law at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) and at the AP Hogeschool Antwerpen. He was also a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT (ICRI) (today the Centre for IT & IP Law) of the Faculty of Law of the KU Leuven.
He is President of the Flemish Supervisory Committee and he is a member of the ICT Committees of the Order of Flemish Bars, and of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE).
Professional admissions
Hans has been a member of the Dutch speaking Bar Association of Brussels since 2005.
Prior professional experience
Before co-founding Timelex in June 2007, he worked for two years as an IT, IP and privacy lawyer at the international law firm Lawfort in Brussels. Before that, he worked as an academic researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT (ICRI), mainly in European research projects on electronic identification, electronic signatures and e-commerce.
Education
- Master of laws – KU Leuven (2002) – Cum laude
- Complementary Study in ICT – KU Leuven (2003) – Cum laude
