Historical Introduction

Stanislaw Hashiguchi Pelczar

The adventures of Stanislaw “Ulysses” Pelczar

“Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide
after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,
and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted.”
(Odyssey 1.1-4)

Stanislaw obtained his Master Juris degree from the University of Wroclaw. He qualified in Poland where he gained experience as lead counsel before high courts, Supreme Courts and Constitutional Tribunal.

“His fame, believe me, has reached the vaulting skies.
Fame like a flawless king’s who dreads the gods,
who governs a kingdom vast, proud and strong —
who upholds justice, true.”
(Odyssey 19.118-122)

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening up of the country also opened up new opportunities.
“Then, with equal ease, the god knocked down the wall, as a boy at the seaside knocks down a sandcastle: he builds it to amuse himself, as children do, and then with his hands and feet wrecks the whole thing for fun.”
(Iliad 15.361–6)
Stanislaw was unable to leave his Calypso, stayed in central Europe, and worked as a lawyer in Prague on a range of international corporate and commercial legal matters.
“Odysseus journeys home —the exile must return.
But not in the convoy of the gods or mortal men.
No, on a lashed, makeshift raft, wrung with pains.”
(Odyssey 5.35-45)
Like Polyphemus, the Island-dwelling Cyclops, Stanislaw went to work on an island and was almost devoured by U.K. legal giants: the law firms Olswang and Bird & Bird, for whom he worked a number of years.
“Here was a piece of work, by god, a monster
built like no mortal who ever supped on bread,
no, like a shaggy peak, I’d say — a man-mountain
rearing head and shoulders over the world.”
(Odyssey 9.211-215)
The lure of becoming a tech lawyer in London was Staszek’s siren’s call, drawn by the promise of unending knowledge. He obtained the knowledge but escaped the siren’s clutches.

“Never has any sailor passed our shores in his black craft
until he has heard the honeyed voices pouring from our lips,
and once he hears to his heart’s content sails on, a wiser man.
… all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!”
(Odyssey 12.184-196)

Stanislaw subsequently expanded his focus towards Asia, which he still regularly visits. He has build an admirable network of legal and business contacts in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and across SE Asia.

“He mingled among the natives, Lotus-eaters, Lotus-eaters
who had no notion of killing my companions, not at all,
they simply gave them the lotus to taste instead …
Any crewmen who ate the lotus, the honey-sweet fruit,
lost all desire to send a message back, much less return,
their only wish to linger there with the Lotus-eaters,
grazing on lotus, all memory of the journey home
dissolved forever.”
(Odyssey 12.103-110)

Stanislaw then managed the Scylla and Charybdis of Malta & Cyprus. He cleared the seemingly unscalable heights of the Fund and private wealth business, and delved deep into the legal and tax intricacies of the digital industries.

“a choice of routes is yours. I cannot advise you
which to take, or lead you through it all —
you must decide for yourself —
but I can tell you the ways of either course.
On one side beetling cliffs shoot up, and against them
pound the huge roaring breakers of blue-eyed Amphitrite —
the Clashing Rocks they’re called by all the blissful gods. […]
On the other side loom two enormous crags …
One thrusts into the vaulting sky its jagged peak,
hooded round with a dark cloud that never leaves —
no clear bright air can ever bathe its crown,
not even in summer’s heat or harvest-time.”
(Odyssey 12.62-84)

In 2014 Stanislaw found his home in CEEtax, where he is now using his vast legal knowledge and experience for the benefit of our clients.

“And as a loving father embraces his own son
Come back from a distant land after ten long years.”
(Odyssey 16.19-21)