Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr. is a founding partner of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire. He specializes in plaintiffs' litigation with an emphasis in business disputes, condemnation and major injury cases.. A tenacious litigator, Bartolotta is recognized annually by Woodward/White as one of the Best Lawyers in America - a recognition he's received for the past 30 years.
"There's really no secret about what I do," he says, "I really do care for my clients; each case gets the same treatment I would give my family"
Bartolotta was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. His father was a coal miner, his mother a licensed practical nurse. Since age 10 Bartolotta has rarely missed a day's work. He's delivered newspapers, unloaded grocery trucks, hauled produce, loaded beef in a slaughter house, shoveled slag from the blast furnaces of a Pittsburgh steel mill, worked salvage operations as a commercial scuba diver and labored as an ironworker.
While at the University of Pittsburgh, on a full athletic scholarship, he was selected by the All American Selection Committee to the all Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey Team and earned recognition as a first alternate on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Soccer Team.
Enlisting in the US Marine Corps, and completing USMC officer candidate training, his military duties returned him to "PITT" where he earned his law degree in 1970. During law school, his full scholarship continued while he coached PITT's Freshman Soccer Team and trained for the Olympics.
Returning to active duty, he was appointed criminal defense counsel at Camp Pendleton and eventually assigned to the prosecution. Offered a military judgeship for his final year of active duty, he instead volunteered for orders to Vietnam. He requested attachment to an Air Combat Unit, serving occasionally as a radar intercept officer as well as Wing Legal Officer.
Bartolotta earned his negotiator's stripes deep in the jungles of Thailand, compensating relatives of victims of "friendly" fire in order to help keep secret operations by the United States Special Forces. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Major.
Following active duty, Bartolotta joined the law firm of Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, specializing in insurance defense work. His compassionate nature soon led him to devote himself to full-time plaintiffs' representation.
On October 1, 1978 Bartolotta and Michael Thorsnes joined forces in a law partnership, forming what is now one of California's premier litigation firms. His 2001 verdict in Border Business Park v. The City of San Diego received recognition as one of the Top 10 Verdicts in the Nation that year.
Bartolotta is past president of the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego and has received the association's Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award in 1981, 1988, 1989 and 1991 and was named the 2001 Trial Lawyer of the Year. He is a member and past president of the American Board of Trial Advocates and was named ABOTA's California Trial Lawyer of the Year for 2003. He serves as a Master of the American Inns of Court.
In 2006 Bartolotta received the Daniel T. Broderick Award for Civility, Integrity and Professionalism from the San Diego Bar Association (he was nominated by the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego/American Board of Trial Advocates/Association of Business Trial Lawyers and San Diego Defense Lawyers), an Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, and was named one of San Diego's Top Attorneys by the Daily Transcript.
His numerous contributions to community and charitable activities include Past President of Rancho Santa Fe Youth; member and Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Vincent de Paul Village; Chairman of the St. Vincent de Paul Father Joe $100,000,000 Capital Campaign; member of the American Ireland Fund, San Diego Chapter and is a member of the Century Club.
Bartolotta and his wife Judy reside in Rancho Santa Fe. He remains an active soccer player and sometime golfer.
