Connor, L Sidney

Henry Fenton is a co-founder of the law firm. Among other distinctions, he has been rated AV Preeminent by the Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating system and has been chosen to 2009 and 2010 Southern California Super Lawyer in the field of health care law. Mr. Fenton has also been named "Lawyer of the Year" by California Magazine and Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Fenton is a 1969 graduate of the UCLA School of Law. He received his A.B., cum laude, in history from UCLA in 1966. Mr. Fenton is admitted to the California Bar and to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, D.C. Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has handled a wide range of civil litigation matters in the areas of healthcare, labor and employment, antitrust and other areas of the law. He has won many important appellate decisions for physicians and other healthcare providers and has argued several cases in the United States and California Supreme Courts. Mr. Fenton has successfully represented hundreds of physicians who have faced Accusations or disciplinary investigations by the Medical Board of California.

Mr. Fenton has several decisions that were published by the appellate courts in disputes involving the Department of Health Services. In Grier vs. Department of Health Services (2000), and in UAPD vs. Department of Health Services as trial counsel, Mr. Fenton won important cases on behalf of physicians facing huge extrapolated audit demands and established precedents which limited the audits of the Department of Health Services to unfairly audit physicians.

In Florence Western Medical Clinic vs. Coye, Mr. Fenton established the precedent that physicians may be able to avoid repayment entirely or obtain a reduction in claimed overpayments where there is delay by the DHS.

In the case of Potvin vs. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Henry Fenton established, in the California Supreme Court, the right of physicians to a hearing before being terminated or deselected by HMOs, insurance companies, or any other healthcare entities. Named among the Lawyers of the Year in 1998 by the California Lawyer Magazine, Mr. Fenton was given this award for his "role in reshaping HMOs."

In San Joaquin Hospital vs. Pacificare, Mr. Fenton won an appellate decision on behalf of a hospital against an HMO reversing a trial court decision and reinstating a lawsuit for more than eight million dollars in damages. More recently, in the landmark decision of Sahlolbei vs. Providence Healthcare, Henry Fenton established the right of physicians facing non reappointment of their staff privileges by a hospital to maintain their staff privileges until all internal remedies under the medical staff bylaws are exhausted. In the recent case of Hayes vs. Cedars Sinai, Mr. Fenton established the right of a physician to a hearing when his application for staff privileges was denied. In the recent decision of In Re Pomona Valley Medical Group, Inc., 476 F.3d 665 (9th Cir. 2007), Mr. Fenton established the right of a physician to pursue state law claims against a healthcare network that had filed for bankruptcy.In a recent case handled by Mr. Fenton, Bode v. Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center 174 Cal. App. 4th 1224 (2009), the court clarified that the medical staff may not sanction or discipline physicians for wrong doing unless they prove the charges with a preponderance of the evidence.

Mr. Fenton is a member of the Board of Directors of the California Society for Healthcare Attorneys. He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Health Care Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Currently, Mr. Fenton is also a member of the California Academy of Attorneys for Health Care Professionals and the Health Care Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.