He started his career in 1961 as a member of the Antwerp Bar then joined the Americanlaw firm Frank Boas Law Office in 1961 in Brussels, to become a partner in 1966. He was also lecturer at the Hoger Instituut voor Bestuurswetenschappen He started his own law firm 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 law firm in Belgium organized along the structure and lines of law partnerships in the United States and Great-Britain. 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. de Bandt became senior counsel of the merged firm. At the time of the merger with Linklaters, De Bandt van Hecke & Lagae was the largest firm of solicitors in Belgium, with more than 200 full-time lawyers. Pierre de Bandt focuses on Belgian and European regulatory law and Belgian commercial law. He is a member of the bar of Brussels.
Other activities
De Bandt was director of several commercial companies and was chairman of the Board of:
chairman and member of the management committee of the Music chapel Queen Elisabeth
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. 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", both centered on the institutional future of Belgium. He was chairman of two foundations at the University of Namur:
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 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 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 100 mbutterfly in 1959.
