Blanckaert Bruls

Our team


Blanckaert / Bruls Advocaten relies on a close-knit team with a clear vision that specialises in services to the business community. We serve both large and medium-sized companies as well as the self-employed and start-ups. Bernard Blanckaert, Koen Bruls, and their team rely on their business experience to assist businesses with their internal structure, contacts, and disputes with third parties.

Bernard Blanckaert

°26 April 1967

Bernard Blanckaert studied law at KU Leuven and obtained a post-graduate degree in tax law from EHSAL in Brussels during his military service. He acquired his first, extensive business experience as a legal and HR manager starting in 1993.

Bernard Blanckaert was admitted to the Hasselt Bar in 1997, going on to establish his own law firm, specialising in advice and assistance to businesses, in 2000. In 2016, he established a new partnership, Blanckaert / Bruls, with his partner Koen Bruls, which is where he currently works.

He speaks several languages and is well-versed in all the practice areas in which Blanckaert / Bruls offers services.

Koen Bruls

°07 April 1974

Koen Bruls studied law at KU Leuven and started out his career in the Brussels Bar, where he spent five years working as a lawyer in a medium-sized and bilingual law firm that specialised in corporate law.

In 2005, Koen was admitted to the Hasselt Bar, where he has been working ever since as a lawyer in the offices of Bernard Blanckaert’s firm. After having worked with Bernard Blanckaert for several years, he became a partner in the newly-established partnership, Blanckaert / Bruls, in 2016.

He speaks several languages and is well-versed in all the practice areas in which Blanckaert / Bruls offers services.

Melissa Cybulski

Melissa Cybulski graduated with a Master of Laws from the University of Antwerp in 2013 and was then admitted to the Limburg Bar.

Immediately after her studies, Melissa worked for several years as a lawyer in another law firm, where she gained extensive experience in areas including commercial law, construction contract law, tenancy law, family law, liability law and criminal law. She is therefore well-versed in all the practice areas that Blanckaert / Bruls covers.

From 2014 to 2018, Melissa was an active board member of the Conference of the Young Lawyers’ Bar of Limburg and, from 2014 to 2017, was also a member of the Limburg Bar’s traineeship committee.

Melissa is multilingual, and also handles cases in Italian.

She joined our firm in 2018.

Jessica Baeten

Jessica joined our firm in 2004. She has a graduate degree in commercial sciences and business administration, and specialised in secretariat and modern languages. She has been in charge of every aspect of our administration as well as offering support to the entire team since joining our firm. 

Jolien Stulens

Jolien joined Blanckaert / Bruls Advocaten in 2012. She graduated from PHL Hasselt in 2012 with a diploma in Business Management - Legal Practice. She offers administrative assistance to all our lawyers and also follows up on all the debt collection files together with one of them.