Jan Stanisław Konic (born 16 May 1892, Warsaw–died 27 June 1962, Warsaw) – attorney in Warsaw, judge, editor of Gazeta Sądowa Warszawska, head of a department at the Ministry of Justice.

He was the son of a naturalist Józef (1859–1928), owner of the Stużno estate in Opoczno County, and Wiktoria, née Bergson (1860–1917) – daughter of the director of the Warsaw Discount Bank, nephew of Henryk Konic (1860–1934). He had three sisters: Stefania (1895–1947), Jadwiga (1898–1924), x (born 1900) and brother, Leon (1894–1968), who was a judge.

After receiving his early education at the family home, he studied at a trade school in Łódź. During the revolutionary events of 1905, he was transferred to Kraków, where he graduated with honours from the First Imperial and Royal Higher Real School (present-day August Witkowski Secondary School no. 5) in 1910. That year, he also converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism. He passed his secondary school final exams in 1911 at Gymnasium no. 5 in Saint Petersburg and began studying law at Saint Petersburg University. He continued his studies in Kazan in the years 1914-1916, where he obtained a postgraduate degree – candidate of law. In Saint Petersburg, he worked in the Economics Department under Prof. Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky (1865–1919), focusing on topics such as agricultural machinery in Russia.

In 1916, he was mobilized into the army, where he graduated from the officers’ sapper school with the rank of ensign. He left the army following the Bolshevik Revolution. He became involved in the Polish Liquidation Committee headed by Aleksander Lednicki. At the time, he was working in the office of attorney Zygmunt Rymowicz in Saint Petersburg.

He returned to Warsaw in 1918, where he served his judicial apprenticeship while working in the Legal Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In 1920, he became Justice of the Peace in Płońsk. In 1920/1921, he performed military service in the Judicial Corps at the Armed Forces High Command. Between 1921 and 1922, he was Justice of the Peace in Grójec. At the same time, between 1920 and 1922, he worked as a registrar of mortgages. In 1923, he became an attorney in Warsaw, working at a law firm run by his uncle, Henryk Konic, with whom he also worked as a secretary to the editorial staff of Gazeta Sądowa Warszawska. At the same time, he took on the position of senior contract clerk in the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Justice. He was also an adviser to the Warsaw branch of the Polish Bank of Industrialists in Lviv. He served on the boards of joint-stock companies, e.g. Kielecka Odlewnia S.A.

In the local government, he conducted seminars for trainee attorneys. He wrote articles for Gazeta Sądowa Warszawska, focusing on history and civil law, e.g. on the introduction of the Napoleonic Code in the Polish lands. As Edward Muszalski states, many of his works were published in the journal anonymously (especially in the case of editorial work). He penned several articles for Encyklopedia Podręczna Prawa Prywatnego, e.g. “Bankowe prawo” and “Emisyjny bank”. Articles written by Konic were published in the journals Palestra and Przegląd Dyplomatyczny. Many of these works concerned the judiciary, civil procedure, banking law and bankruptcy law.

He was dismissed from his post at the Ministry of Justice in 1933. After the death of Henryk Konic, he took over the editorship of Gazeta Sądowa Warszawska. He performed his editorial duties from May 1934 until 1939, leaving its layout, format and editing style mostly unaltered. He even took over the preparation of editorials for subsequent annuals, which was the idea and responsibility of his predecessor.

In September 1939, he was enlisted into the operational group headed by General Aleksander Jerzy Narbut-Łuczyński, which was part of the Kraków Army, as a reserve officer of the judicial corps. He made his way to Hungary in the ranks of the staff unit, where he was interned. He was held in several camps.

He returned to Poland in 1945. Between 1945 and 1947, he worked as a legal adviser at the Opole-based Paper Production Association in Głuchołazy, and after his return to Warsaw in 1947, he took on a post at the Ministry of Recovered Territories.

He was re-enrolled on the list of attorneys in 1948. From 1949 until 1950, he worked as head of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Public Administration. From 1950 until 1952, he performed duties as senior counsellor for legal affairs at the Ministry of Public Utilities, whereas from July 1952, he held the position of head of the State and Administrative Law Office at the Ministry of Justice. On 1 April 1954, he became the head of the Division of State and Administrative Law in the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Justice.

He died in Warsaw on 27 June 1962. He was laid to rest in Powązki Cemetery.

Through his marriage to Wanda, née Kłokocka (1896–1995), contracted in 1917, he had a son, Andrzej (1926–2010), a celebrated film director, and daughter, Halina, wife of Ludwik Kos-Rabcewicz-Zubkowski, an attorney and professor of private international law in Montreal.

Adam Redzik

Bibliography

• Archives of the Warsaw Bar Association;
  • S. Milewski, A. Redzik, Themis i Pheme. Czasopiśmiennictwo prawnicze w Polsce do 1939 roku, Warszawa, 2011, pp. 219, 220, 224, 517, 518, 549, 551, 588;
  • E. Muszalski, “Konic Jan Stanisław (1892–1962)”, in Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. XIII, Warszawa, 1968, pp. 506–507;
  • Życie Warszawy, no. 153, 1962.