Strengthening Discipline Programs by Incorporating Vertical Enforcement

After an extensive review of the discipline program of the Medical Board of California, one of the recommendations made by the States legislatively mandated Enforcement Monitor was to adopt a method called vertical enforcement. This method actively involves attorneys throughout the discipline process, from initial investigation through prosecution. For more information on vertical enforcement see http://www.cpil.org/download/MBC/RPT1-Ch7.pdf and http://www.cpil.org/download/MBC/RPT1-Ch9.pdf.

Two spokespersons who served as Enforcement Monitors of the Medical Board of California described the many ways vertical enforcement can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of any licensing boards discipline process.

Presenters:
Julianne DAngelo Fellmeth
Administrative Director
Center for Public Interest Law
University of San Diego School of Law

Tom Papageorge
Special Prosecutor
Economic Crimes Division
San Diego District Attorneys Office

Julianne D'Angelo Fellmeth is the Administrative Director of the Center for Public Interest Law and an adjunct professor of law at the University of San Diego School of Law. She is also editor of the Center's legal journal, the California Regulatory Law Reporter, which covers the activities of 25 major California occupational licensing boards.

Since 1986, Professor D'Angelo Fellmeth has taken an active role in California's regulation of business, professions, and trades with a special emphasis on the health care professions. She participated in the research and drafting of the Center's 1989 report entitled "Physician Discipline in California: A Code Blue Emergency," a major report that has led to the enactment of five Medical Board reform bills since 1990. She frequently appears before California licensing boards and urges them to remember that public protection not professional protection is their highest priority.

She regularly testifies before state legislative committees on bills pertaining to occupational licensing, and before California administrative agencies on policy matters. She has actively participated in the California legislature's sunset review of the state's occupational licensing boards including the Medical Board, the Dental Board, the Board of Optometry, the Board of Podiatric Medicine, and many other occupational licensing agencies.

Thomas A. Papageorge, a graduate of UCLA and the Harvard Law School, is the Special Prosecutor in charge of consumer protection and antitrust cases for the Economic Crimes Division of the San Diego District Attorneys Office.

Mr. Papageorge supervised the Consumer Protection Division of the Los Angeles District Attorneys Office for 25 years, including its antitrust, consumer, environmental and high tech crime units. He is a former Regional Director of the FTCs Los Angeles Regional Office, many-time chair of the Consumer Protection Committee of the California DAs Association, past chair of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the State Bar of California, and past chair of the Antitrust Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

He has served as Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Law at the Whittier Law School, and he continues as an Adjunct Professor of Law there and at the University of San Diego School of Law, teaching and writing in the areas of antitrust, consumer law, and white collar crime. In 2004 Mr. Papageorge was honored by the State Bar Antitrust Section as its Antitrust Lawyer of the Year. His publications include numerous articles and four books, including the third edition of his book, California White Collar Crime (with Robert Fellmeth), published in 2010 by Tower Publications/Matthew Bender.

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