Practice areas
Niels Vandezande is specialised in FinTech law, in particular crypto-assets, NFTs, web3, e-money and electronic payments, and blockchain. Niels also has extensive experience in privacy and data protection law (GDPR), security and trust services, identity management, digital archiving, e-government, e-commerce, e-health, and public information availability and re-use.
At Timelex, Niels advises clients on their IT-related projects and overall e-business, drafts the various types of contracts needed for a given situation, and helps them to implement the policies needed for their overall legal compliance.
Apart from his client work, Niels is very active as a legal advisor in EU-funded Horizon Europe projects in the fields of new technologies such as robotics and AI. In that capacity, he acts as core legal advisor to the international and interdisciplinary consortium and supports them in maintaining the legal and ethical compliance of the project’s research activities.
Academic activities
Between 2009 and 2014 Niels was a researcher and between 2014 and 2018 a PhD researcher at the Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) at the Law Faculty of the University of Leuven. He remains a senior research fellow at this Centre. He mainly conducted legal research on blockchain and FinTech.
In March 2018, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled “Regulating Virtual Currencies: A Legal Assessment of Digital Representations of Value Under Financial and Economic Law” on the regulatory issues surrounding virtual currencies, including cryptocurrencies. The thesis analyses whether the existing legal frameworks regarding non-physical currencies and payment methods – the EU E-Money Directive and EU Payment Services Directive – can apply or whether they should be amended to apply to virtual currencies.
He has been involved in various research projects and remains an active speaker and author in these fields.
Professional admissions
Niels has been a member of the Dutch-Speaking Bar Association at the Brussels Bar since 2023.
Education
- PhD in Law, University of Leuven (2018)
- Law degree, University of Leuven (2009)
