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LIVING THE BEST VERSION OF MYSELF
A BEAUTIFUL CAREER LIVED ON HIS OWN TERMS
Dr. Ulrich Eder is a retired German lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) and certified tax adviser (Steuerberater). He was admitted to practise in the district of the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf) and remained a member of the Düsseldorf Bar for more than 30 years. After a truly international legal career and a few commercially rewarding ventures, he was able to retire pretty early in 2021 resp. 2024. His legal practice is now permanently closed, and he has surrendered his professional licences to the relevant German authorities. [INTJ]
[All photographs on this page are authentic, date from the year indicated, and have not been AI-enhanced.]
DORTMUND DÜSSELDORF BANGKOK PANAMA CITY
LEGAL STUDIES IN ERLANGEN AND MÜNSTER
Born and raised in Dortmund, Germany, Dr. Eder studied German law at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen, Bavaria. To cultivate character and discipline, he fought four compulsory academic fencing duels for the student fraternity Burschenschaft Germania (member #2075), using sharpened épées. He still bears a barely visible Mensur scar — a Schmiss — at his left temple, worn as a badge of honour and stoicism. No balls, no glory.
He continued his academic studies in Münster, North-Rhine Westphalia and received his Ph.D. in Law (Dr. jur.) with honors from the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität in 1990. His doctoral dissertation addresses the pretty boring topic “Das Pfandrecht am Anwartschaftsrecht des Vorbehaltskäufers”. His years immersed in a demanding and intellectually rigorous university environment instilled a disciplined, analytical outlook that continued to shape his professional career.
DÜSSELDORF 2001
MASTER OF THE DÜSSELDORF UNIVERSE
In 1989, Dr. Eder began his career at KPMG Peat Marwick in Düsseldorf, Germany where he acted as a Prokurist and tax manager in the practice areas of national and international tax counseling, tax structuring, corporate restructuring, management and negotiation of industrial settlements, especially for Japanese banks and companies.
In 1994, he joined the business law firm Hölters & Elsing in Düsseldorf (now Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe) where he gained further experience concerning legal and tax aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, international tax structuring and cross-border business relocation and privatization of federal and state government agencies. A big part of how this game is played is to not reveal how this game is played.
During his tenure at the Düsseldorf business law firm, Dr. Eder published five scholarly articles in specialist legal journals. He also delivered the first of what would eventually become 47 keynote addresses and conference presentations over the course of his professional career, covering corporate law, real estate law, financial law, tax law, and offshore structures.
From 1996 to 1998 Dr. Eder served as a Prokurist and tax advisor at WIBERA AG, an affiliate entity of Pricewaterhouse Coopers Germany focusing on municipal taxation issues, privatization and restructuring, municipal leasing, and cross-border leasing. At the time, municipal consulting was a vastly underestimated field with untapped potential. One must recognize great opportunities while they are still small.
If you dont take risks in life you will end up working for those who do. In 1998 he founded his own boutique tax consultancy firm DUE FINANCE Wirtschaftsberatung GmbH, fully licensed as Steuerberatungsgesellschaft. He and his team mainly advised in the ultra-controversial area of U.S./German cross-border-leasing, but also project financings, BOT models, public-private-partnerships, non-recourse financings, and other types of municipal and governmental finance. This included the preparation and monitoring of detailed and extensive risk-management systems for the controlling and monitoring of long-term financial transactions.
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK 2005
ADVENTUROUS YEARS IN BANGKOK
More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. He moved to Thailand in 2007 to work as foreign lawyer and tax advisor with the Bangkok office of Roedl & Partner, the Thai outlet of the German mega law firm conglomerate. Working for a business that mistakes passivity for sophistication may seem pleasant at first; but for someone accustomed to - and professionally shaped by - a more combative environment, its tranquillity soon becomes indistinguishable from professional anaesthesia.
In 2009, he joined the American law firm of Mulvana, de Angeli in Bangkok. The firm was renowned for its legal and structuring expertise in hotel and hospitality development and infamous as the market leader for investment, legal, and tax advice in Bangkok's red light districts and its bars, clubs, massage parlors, and other adult entertainment industries. The Mulvana, de Angeli law firm is now closed following the death of its charismatic founder, Tsar F. Mulvana. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Since 2011 he has been Director and de-facto Sole Owner of the independent Bangkok investment law firm PUGNATORIUS Ltd. The law practice had been focussed on foreign direct investments in Thailand's industries, properties, and people. This included the full scope of company formations, land acquisitions, and cross-border tax planning. The law firm had a special knowledge and reputation in the sectors of renewable energy (solar and wind energy), financial services and cryptocurrency ventures, agriculture businesses including cannabis, and Thailand's maritime sector. Dr. Ulrich Eder was over some years well known as the "Bitcoin Lawyer". The Bangkok law firm PUGNATORIUS is closed for good since April 2021. There’s only being in, and then being out.
Dr. Ulrich Eder is the author of the first German-language reference book on Thailand’s company laws "Gesellschaftsrecht des Auslands - Thailand", published by Germany’s oldest publishing house C.H.Beck. It is part of the renowned collected edition “Company laws of the world” aka. Corporate laws of the world, with one of the most prestigious German law firms as lead editor.
BANGKOK, THAILAND 2017
THE PANAMA RETIREMENT
Games are changing, but the rules remain the same. Dr. Ulrich Eder is the founder and president of PUGNATORIUS S.A., an independent strategic advisory firm established under Panamanian law in 2009. Following the closure of his Bangkok law practice, he continued through PUGNATORIUS S.A. to undertake a small number of discreet consulting assignments for international corporate and private clients.
However, since early 2024, the firm has offered no further services. Dr. Eder delivered his forty-seventh and final keynote presentation at an international conference in Central America. The books are closed, the fighting has ended, and a quieter time can now begin.
tl;dr: PUGNATORIUS, once known for two thriving ventures in Bangkok and Panama City, has gracefully retired - along with its founder, who now conducts deep market research from a beach chair with a caipirinha in hand.
PANAMA CITY 2021
WHAT'S NEXT IN 2026?
Having traveled around the globe in 2025/2026, Dr. Ulrich Eder is now fully retired and enjoys the agreeable life of a privatier in Latin America and beyond. You might find him indulging in his hobby of street photography, or running his (nearly) daily 5 km through the streets or in the local park. Or he is occupied with playing Blackjack or guilty pleasures that shall not be described in further detail here. Most people have never be fond of him because he represent to them all the sins they never had the courage to commit.
Anyway, you don’t have to get every decision right in life. Death will come on an ordinary day, in the midst of unfinished plans, and the world will carry on without you. After all, no one carves a scorecard on your tombstone - while your Bitcoin will stay perfectly safe on the uncrackable hardware wallet kept in an exotic bank vault forever. A modern form of grave goods: The pharaohs took gold with them into the afterlife. I’ll take the private keys.
MEXICO CITY 2026