Born in Rusinów, he was an activist of the Polish Socialist Party who began his career as an attorney in 1894 in Warsaw, Russian partition. From 1903 he became involved in legal assistance for political prisoners, and since defended many Poles accused for political dissident as well as members of Combat Organization of the Polish Socialist Party before the Russian courts in Russian partitioned Poland. Founder and activist of Polish legal association grouping like-minded lawyers as well as of other organizations dedicated to helping political prisoners, Związek Pomocy dla Ofiar Politycznych ; those organizations would be headquartered in his legal offices. In the years 1905-1907 the lawyers of Koło took part in about 260 trials; over 20% were found innocent. 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 reputation as an excellent orator and lawyer. He gained such a reputation, and skills, that government provocateurs and agents he liked to call for witness commonly made mistakes in their testimonies. He didn't hesitate to criticize the existing political situation, and discuss the common repressions and brutality of tsar's police. In his famous speech during Okrzeja's trial he said: The organizations defending political prisoners had an unclear legal status in Russian Empire, and were repressed by the government. Due to his activities, as the leading Polish lawyer with an unmatched track of getting his defendants out of the death penalty, and often out from prison altogether, Patek became increasingly inconvenient to the Russian government, and became a target for repressions himself; in 1908 he was accused of "ties with the defendants" ; Patek was arrested and briefly imprisoned for a month, but after an intervention by several known Polish and even Russian lawyers, he was released. In 1910 he was subject to another disciplinary hearing for "usage of improper terms during the trials", "conspiracy to change statements", "membership in secret illegal organizations"; he was declared innocent by a regional court, only to have the prosecution open another case against him or appeal against the verdict. Finally, in 1911, despite protests from lawyers from Poland and Russia, he was dropped from the list of the attorneys in Russian Empire; as contemporary Russian newspaper Zvezda put it, "due to political considerations". After Poland regained independence in 1918, in recognition of his status as one of the most outstanding Polish lawyers, he was involved in creation of the new Polish legal system. In November 1918 he became the President of the Criminal Division of the Appellate Court in Warsaw, and was soon appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court.
