Sheppard Mullin Adds Healthcare Regulatory Partner In Century City

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that Richard (Rick) Rifenbark has joined the firm as a partner in the Healthcare industry team in Century City. He was most recently a shareholder at Polsinelli, PC. Rifenbark's joining follows on that of a group of five healthcare real estate attorneys who joined Sheppard Mullin's Los Angeles office in March, four of whom were also from Polsinelli.

"Expanding our healthcare team is a priority of the firm, and Rick is a terrific addition," said Jon Newby, Sheppard Mullin's vice chairman. "We've added 10 lateral healthcare partners over the last year and we plan to continue deepening our existing bench strength by growing the group both in California and nationally."

Healthcare industry team leader Eric Klein added, "Our California healthcare compliance and regulatory partners are extremely busy, so Rick is joining us at the perfect time. His two decades of practicing in California have given him significant experience with the state's very complex healthcare regulatory landscape, which will benefit our clients greatly."

Rifenbark's practice is a blend of healthcare regulatory compliance and transactional work. He regularly advises clients on healthcare fraud and abuse laws and other regulatory issues, including the federal anti-kickback statute, stark physician self-referral law, false claims act, state licensing issues, corporate practice of medicine doctrines and state fraud and abuse laws. He also negotiates and drafts transactional agreements, including merger and acquisition, affiliation, professional services and management agreements. Rifenbark received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, (where he was a member of the California Law Review) and his B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley.