• PERSONAL

Honorary Consul Pat O’Toole was born in Torrance, Los Angeles County, California, where he attended Catholic grammar school and high school. He is married, and has four adult children.

• ACADEMIC

Pat attended college at the University of Southern California on an academic scholarship, where he graduated magna cum laude and was selected for the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. Pat was also selected for the Blue Key Honorary Leadership Society, the Blackstonians Pre-Legal Honorary Society, and he was president of his fraternity.

Pat attended the University of California at Los Angeles Law School, where he graduated with a Juris Doctor Degree. He participated in the Moot Court Honors Program, and he had an academic clerkship with the Honorable William Matthew Byrne, Jr., United States District Court.

• PROFESSIONAL

Pat worked most of his professional life as a federal prosecutor (Assistant United States Attorney) for the Southern District of California (San Diego). Pat also served as First Assistant United States Attorney, and United States Attorney—the District’s chief federal law enforcement official. Pat managed and supervised 120 attorneys in all aspects of the federal government’s criminal and civil litigation. He chaired the Federal Law Enforcement Executive Committee (FLEX), consisting of the Chiefs of all the federal law enforcement agencies in San Diego, and he served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Subcommittees on Controlled Substances and on the Border and Immigration. Following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, Pat established an Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF) for this District to combat and prevent terrorism.

As a lawyer, Pat has had over 100 felony criminal trials; he’s drafted over 90 appellate briefs, and has argued over 70 Ninth Circuit and other appeals; he has over 40 Ninth Circuit and other published opinions; and Pat has had two cases go to the United States Supreme Court, including one at counsel table. Pat was nationally recognized for his work as a federal prosecutor.

After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Pat went to work for the District Attorney’s Office in San Diego, where he was Head of the Public Integrity Unit. Pat created an investigative grand jury system, and he thereafter wrote the three grand jury manuals used by the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA), A Comparative Guide Between the California Criminal Grand Jury and the Federal Grand Jury, The California Criminal Investigative Grand Jury, and The California Criminal Indictment Grand Jury.

After leaving the District Attorney’s Office, Pat researched and wrote the position paper for the CDAA on the constitutionality of the statute that removed the grand jury’s jurisdiction to inquire into law enforcement fatal force cases. Along with co-counsel, Pat  wrote the pleadings in the Pierson litigation challenging this legislation, and he co-argued the writ in the Court of Appeal. The legislation was held unconstitutional (People ex rel. Pierson v. Superior Court of El Dorado County (2017) 7 Cal.App.5th 402). Thereafter, Pat worked with the CDAA to get other legislation enacted that provided for public disclosure of grand jury transcripts in law enforcement fatal force cases where an indictment is not returned.

Pat now works part-time helping District Attorney’s Offices in California on grand jury and other important issues.

• PREVIOUS IRISH INVOLVEMENT

Pat is very proud of his Irish heritage, and he has been very involved with Irish and Irish American organizations and activities. He has been to Ireland many times, both just to visit and learn about his ancestral homeland, and officially as an Irish government representative. Pat was a co-founder of the Irish American Bar Association of San Diego (IABASD), was its second president, and is now an ex officio board member. Pat was previously Chair of the Board of Irish Outreach for two years, in which capacity he worked closely with the Irish Consulate for the Western United States. Pat is also a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick; he previously served on its board; and he now serves in an ex officio position as its legal counsel. Pat was recently given the Friendly Sons’ highest honor—“Irishman of the Year” for 2020.

• HONORARY CONSUL POSITION

The San Diego region previously came under the jurisdiction of the Irish Consulate for the Western United States, located in San Francisco. With the recent opening of the Irish Consulate for the Southwestern United States, located in Los Angeles, the San Diego region is now under the jurisdiction of that Consulate.

In recognition of the San Diego region having California’s second largest city; its closeness to Mexico, an important trade partner and friend of Ireland’s; and the strength and vitality of its Irish and Irish American organizations, the Irish government decided to open an Honorary Consulate for the San Diego region, one of only ten such Consulates in the USA. In recognition of his involvement in the San Diego Irish community, the regard within which he is held in this community, and his many and notable achievements, in the Irish community and elsewhere, the Irish government has chosen Pat to be its first Honorary Consul for the San Diego region.

• HONORARY CONSUL’S GOALS  

Generally: effectively, responsibly, and professionally serve as Ireland’s official representative for the San Diego region;

Specifically: (a) promote and assist in having greater cooperation among the various Irish and Irish American organizations in the San Diego region, and assisting these organizations  in promoting and enhancing Irish culture;

(b) help increase and enhance Ireland’s trade and business in the San Diego region, and help reestablish an effective Irish business network in the San Diego region;

(c) increase Ireland’s visibility and profile with Mexico, help increase and enhance Ireland’s trade and business with Mexico, and increase cultural and friendship ties with it;

(d) increase Ireland’s visibility and profile with the twenty-six Consulates in the San Diego region, have greater involvement with them, and increase cultural and friendship ties with them.