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.