San Diego Criminal Justice Memorial
Honorees
A memorial directory honoring deceased judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys who advanced criminal justice in San Diego County.
Thomas J. Ulovec
1952-2002
Born Dec 6, 1952, Tom attended and graduated from Crawford High School (1971) where he excelled in speech and debate. Even then, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer. He was encouraged in this by the interest of his father, Bob, a savings and loan professional who had aspired to be a lawyer.
Tom attended and graduated from University of San Diego for his undergraduate degree and then graduated from USD’s Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in 1978. He set up his law practice in Chula Vista and over time became known to his brothers and sisters of the defense bar as “Mr. South Bay.” To him would go the phone calls from colleagues asking questions about the local judges and procedural anomalies, and he gave generously of his time and fielding these questions. As a defense attorney, Tom was dedicated to the goal that everybody deserved a fair trial.
As time progressed, he defended the tougher cases and was well respected as a trial advocate. One of his most publicized court cases, although not the more serious, was the 1991 case of the “Billboard Bandit,” Donald G. House, a Clairemont painting contractor. House had waged a war against smoking by defacing billboards advertising cigarettes including one at Qualcomm Stadium. After admitting defacing 46 billboards, he was convicted on four counts of vandalism.
Tom also taught evenings for 15 years as an associate professor of law at his alma mater, the University of San Diego. In addition to his business law practice and teaching, Tom was very active in bar matters. He was a member of the San Diego County Bar Board of Directions, was president of the San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association, president of the South Bay Bar Association and served on the Board of Directors of the State Bar Convention.
An avid golfer, sports fan, Civil War, movie buff and animal lover, he was also a contributor to the San Diego Art Museum, the San Diego Historical Society, the Museum of Natural History, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Center and the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Tom found time to do it all and live life to the fullest. On September 18, 2002, he died far too young at age 49. The County Board of Supervisors adjourned their meeting of October 1, 2002 in his memory.