Henry R. Fenton

LOS ANGELES - Henry R. Fenton has successfully represented hundreds of physicians and other health care professionals who have faced accusations or disciplinary investigations by the Medical Board of California or their respective licensing boards.
Having started his career in 1970, Fenton worked at the Western Center on Law and Poverty as a legal services lawyer. Later, he represented unions as a labor lawyer. He expanded his employment law expertise within the health care field after working for the Union of American Physicians & Dentists.
"We represented at that time the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. They were primarily a public employee union," Fenton said. "We would help with insurance and licensing issues. Whatever they were facing."
Fenton now oversees a group of lawyers at his law firm, Fenton Law Group, LLP, which defends physicians, nurses, and other health care providers in disputes involving allegations of fraud and abuse, anti-kickback laws, long-term care, behavioral health, and alcohol and drug abuse, as well as litigation involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, HIPAA, and other regulatory agencies.
"We're a health care firm of lawyers who represent primary health care professionals with respect to licensing and medical staff issues as well as to staff privileges which they need in order to practice their profession," Fenton said. "Early on, I got so busy I couldn't do other stuff. Physicians felt their rights were being infringed upon. There was a large need, and there still is."
Fenton and colleagues Nicholas D. Jurkowitz and Dennis E. Lee successfully petitioned the California State Medical Board on behalf of a doctor who had been placed on five years probation in June 2021. They argued that the client's rights to due process were breached and that the board improperly exercised its authority since its conclusions were not corroborated by the existing evidence. The probation was terminated early after the board's revised decision, which was made after the court ordered it to review the situation.
In August 2021, Fenton won a case for a physician who had been disciplined by the Medical Board of California after it was alleged that one of his employees had written unauthorized and unlawful prescriptions for controlled medications.
Fenton and colleagues successfully petitioned the Los Angeles County Superior Court to vacate the imposed sanctions, despite an administrative law judge's original finding that the doctor was responsible for his employee's acts.
His winning argument: a physician who institutes reasonable safeguards should not be disciplined on a vicarious liability theory.