Published: Theodore “Ted” H. Cominos Honored by Monterey County Bar Association

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Theodore Cominos Honored by the Monterey County Bar Association

Monterey County Bar Association
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As the managing director of Joie de Vie, a retail fine art partnership with Cirque du Soleil, Julia Cominos was involved in the launch of three Las Vegas-based retail galleries. Julia Cominos' father, Theodore, is a transactional lawyer with more than six decades of experience. This past April, the Monterey County Bar Association (MCBA) recognized his contributions to the legal field. 

The second of Harry and Helen Cominos’ six sons, Theodore was born in Salinas, California, in 1924. During his teenage years, he worked a variety of jobs at The Cominos, the hotel owned by his family. After graduating from high school and serving in an infantry division of the US Army, he attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and later graduated from the University of San Francisco with a law degree. 

He earned admittance to the California Bar in 1952 and shortly after began operating a small practice with the help of his father. Theodore managed business matters for a full-service firm in Monterey from the mid-1960s to 1981. The firm dissolved that year, following which he established Cominos & Biegel with Larry Biegel. He practiced with this firm for 17 years, during which time it employed exemplary associates like Billie French, Mollie Abel Warner, and Joe Cisneros. 

Since 1998, Theodore, who is now 95 years old, has continued to practice from an office in Monterey, where he has been assisted by associates Peter Brazil and Karin Richards.

Theodore Cominos Sr.’s Years Practicing Law in Salinas

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With a successful background in the art world, Julia Cominos holds a strategic development position with Richard MacDonald Studios in Monterey. In April 2019, the Monterey Bar Association honored Julia Cominos’ father, Theodore “Ted” H. Cominos Sr., for his long years of service to the Central Coast legal community. 

Having served in World War II as an infantryman, Salinas native Ted Cominos attended law school in Montana before returning to California in the early 1950s to earn his juris doctor from the University of San Francisco. 

Admitted to the California State Bar Association in January, 1952, Ted started off with a small practice located at South Main and Alisal Streets in Salinas, with an hourly rate of $15. The building in which he practiced gave a start to many of the area’s prominent lawyers, including Jack Abramson and Sidney Church.

In the mid-1960s, Ted teamed up with trial lawyer Larry Shostak and litigator Eugene Epstein, and fulfilled business law responsibilities at a full-service firm. The well-regarded practice was located across from Ted’s office, facing the iconic Dick Bruhn department store. Within a decade, the practice had expanded to include a number of associates, who themselves went on to establish area law practices. 

In 1981, Ted left the firm to start the practice Cominos and Biegel with Larry Biegel. After 17 years of this successful practice, he established a Monterey office in tandem with Tina Cominos, his wife.