Stanisław Patek

Stanisław Jan Patek (; 1 May 1866 – 25 August 1944), Polish lawyer, freemason and diplomat, served as Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1919 to 1920.

The lawyer Born in Rusinów, From 1903 he became involved in legal assistance for political prisoners, Founder and activist of Polish legal association grouping like-minded lawyers (Koło Obrońców Politycznych - The Circle of Political Defenders) as well as of other organizations dedicated to helping political prisoners (Ogólna Kasa Pomocy dla Więźniów Politycznych (General Bank for Helping Political Prisoners), Związek Pomocy dla Ofiar Politycznych (Association of Help for Political Repression Victims); those organizations would be headquartered in his legal offices. During that period he met his future partner, Stefania Sempołowska, a semi-official secretary and counselor of the Koło. He was the personal defender of such high-profile defendants as Stefan Aleksander Okrzeja and Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki, and gained the reputation as an excellent orator and lawyer.

After Poland regained independence in 1918, in recognition of his status as one of the most outstanding Polish lawyers, he was involved in the creation of new Polish legal system. From 1933-1935 ambassador in Washington, United States. during the Warsaw Uprising, as a result of injuries sustained on 22 August in an explosion of a Luftwaffe bomb.