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Regional Vice President, AARP
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Rawle Andrews, Jr., Esq.Rawle Andrews, Jr., Esq.
Regional Vice President, Maryland
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
EmpowermentEmpowermentEmpowermentEmpowerment
might call it external communica-
tions, on what AARP is, what it does,
and how you can get involved.”
Andrews shared with Exceptional
People Magazine what he enjoys
about his position and what he enjoys
most about helping AARP members
live healthy and productive lives.
EPM: Why did you decide to be-
come an attorney?
Rawle: I believe that I always
wanted to find a career in law, even
though my father was a physician, his
uncle and mentor was a physician and
my younger brother also is a medical
doctor. And I think my ability to help
folks know their rights, have those
rights enforced, was only going to be
from a mouthpiece where legal train-
ing was available. That doesn’t mean
a lot of people don’t watch Law and
Order; they can figure out what law-
yers do, and sometimes they do it
pretty successfully. But ultimately the
classical legal training, I think, does
give me a chance to give voice to the
voiceless, whether that’s a corpora-
tion, a government entity, or an indi-
vidual.
EPM: You received your JD with
honors, and you also received the
2006 Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year
award. How important is it for attor-
neys to do pro bono work?
As an attorney and the
Regional Vice President for
AARP in Maryland, Rawle
Andrews, Jr. has confronted
many challenges.
Often viewed by many as an organi-
zation offering discounts to senior
citizens, AARP is much more than
that. It provides an abundance of
benefits that many people may not be
aware of. Andrews is responsible for
ensuring that it all comes together and
runs smoothly. He oversees various
programs for 850,000 members.
“In some respects they are our con-
stituents, but they also are our volun-
teers. They also are our partners in
several of our collaborative efforts to
try to make a difference for people 50
and older and their families,” stated
Andrews.
“I would split my job into thirds, if
you will. One-third of my job is the
general administration and manage-
ment of the business and financial
affairs of AARP’s business in the
state of Maryland. The second phase
or the second third of my job is to run
and oversee our advocacy operations,
which some people would call lobby-
ing. And the third is really in the pub-
lic education and community outreach
phase of the work we do, so you
Rawle: I believe that if you read 99
out of 100 law school essays over the
last 25 to 30 years, almost every one
of them would say, “Please admit me
to your law school,” no matter where
the law school is, “because I want to
be able to give back to the commu-
nity, and the only way I can do it is to
be a lawyer.” That being said, people
get in, the golden handcuffs come out
and then, suddenly, they take a job on
K Street or Wall Street, or wherever
the street may be, and they find that it
becomes difficult with family and
other commitments to give back.
But I think if that’s where you started,
that your plans were that you would
be committed to public service in that
way, that you would know your obli-
gations. So it becomes an obligation
deferred, not an obligation you aren’t
aware of. The other thing I would say
is – but this is really, really important
– I believe the reason why I was hon-
ored with that award is because there
is a difference between pro bono and
community service.
And I’ll give you an example. If I’m
a lawyer trained in lawyer skills, the
best way I can give back is to take my
professional expertise and help some-
body who has modest means and
make their life a little better. That
doesn’t mean I couldn’t volunteer for
Habitat for Humanity and go build
somebody’s back yard playground, or
May-June 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 59
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Rawle: I think every day when I
wake up, I know I have a real oppor-
tunity to help someone. And that’s
when I pick up the phone, write a let-
ter, send an e-mail, or have a meeting.
Because they come to you with a
problem and they know there has
been wrongdoing – sometimes they
don’t legally know how it happened
or why it happened. But they feel in
their DNA that they’ve been
wronged, and they need a road map –
a Mapquest, if you will – to try to
find the solution to it.
Sometimes the fact that they’ve been
wronged morally, in our system of
laws doesn’t mean that there’s a legal
remedy for that. But if I can help
someone say, “Well, you know what,
I know you feel badly about it, but
they weren’t required to tell you X,
Y, or Z,” I hope I’m saving you some
time. People don’t always see the
value in me giving my hour or two
hours to explain that to them. But I
am saving them from a roadblock,
because if you go to court, you’re
going to waste money filing a lawsuit
and it’s going to be dismissed – but
there is a value in doing that.
But I do feel that every day I get up, I
am in an honorable profession – al-
though sometimes lawyers don’t be-
have honorably. I have an opportu-
nity to make a difference every day --
plant trees, or clean up the park or
something like that. That certainly is
valuable service and needed service in
the community, but where do people
really need help?
The reality of it is, when Martin Lu-
ther King was in jail in Birmingham,
he needed a lawyer to get him out, not
a gardener, not a doctor, or pharma-
cist. So I think when professionals
use their professional tools for the
public good, that’s pro bono in my
book.
EPM: You also received a commu-
nity service award for the DC Coali-
tion for Housing Justice.
Rawle: I did, and a lot of that was
related to helping people who either
were in predatory loans or who were
in foreclosure rescue scams, so they
could keep their family housing. A
lot of my pro bono has been in the
affordable housing arena, because I
believe if the house is not right, eve-
rything else falls apart. The home has
to be the castle. So it’s been easy for
me to use my professional training to
help people in those scenarios, as well
as teaching about housing issues at
Howard University.
EPM: What have you found to be
most rewarding about being an attor-
ney?
whether I take that opportunity or not,
that’s on me.
EPM: You’ve been with the Mary-
land state AARP office for quite a
while. In your current position, what
is your main role as Regional Vice
President?
Rawle: I think I would split my job
in thirds, if you will. One-third of my
job is the general administration and
management of the business and fi-
nancial affairs of AARP’s business in
the state of Maryland. The second
phase or the second third of my job is
to run and oversee our advocacy op-
erations, which some people would
call lobbying. And the third is the
public education and community out-
reach phase of the work we do, so it
can be called external communica-
tions -- what AARP is, what it does
and how you can become involved
and so forth.
I wish I could tell you, that every time
I come here, I have a list and the first
three things on my list are manage-
ment, the second three things are ad-
vocacy, and so forth. Every time I put
a list of ten together, I’m lucky if I get
three of them done, no matter what
basket it happens to be in on any par-
ticular day. In Maryland, we have
850,000 members, so in some re-
spects they are our constituents but
they are also our volunteers.
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AARP was offering a class. And the
only requirement, if you came to the
class, was that you had to agree to
handle at least two bro bono cases. I
ended up handling about 15 cases and
probably consulting on about another
20, inside and outside of the District
of Columbia. I advised people in Ha-
waii, in Minnesota. I actually had a
trial in Dallas. What made me proud,
with divine intervention and knocking
on wood, is between 2004 and 2006,
nobody we worked with lost their
home.
There were some days that were dark.
The reality of it is that we were able
to come up with the strength and the
creative solutions – sometimes com-
munity support. Sometimes people
don't realize the impact that a volun-
tary appearance can have upon a
judge. And I’d say, “You need to tell
everybody in your friend and family
network that this is serious.” I know
a lot of times we don’t like to talk
about troubles we’re having, but if
the judge sees that the community
cares about these issues and that eve-
rybody’s potentially at risk, he or she
may give you favor that day – and it
worked. Ultimately, by the time I
did that and the award came, Legal
Counsel for the Elderly under AARP
was seeking a managing attorney.
EPM: How does it feel to know that
you have approximately 850,000
They are our partners in several col-
laborative efforts to make a difference
for people 50 and older and their
families.
EPM: What attracted you to AARP?
Rawle: Well, it’s funny -- whether I
was attracted to AARP or AARP
found me I really don’t know the an-
swer to that question, but it all kind of
dovetails around the pro bono award
that you spoke about earlier. When
predatory lending first came to my
attention, a gentleman came to my
office to tell me that he was in an up-
side-down loan, and none of the
promises the bank made were kept.
There was no way he could ever pay
his mortgage. This was about the
summer of 2004. Nobody was really
talking a lot about predatory lending
then and I didn’t know a lot about it,
because in my former professional
life, I had worked with banks.
I did a lot of business banking as a
deal-breaker, but I wasn’t really fa-
miliar with predatory lending. So I
said, “Well, as I’m doing my due dili-
gence, I don’t know that you really
have a case. You signed a loan, you
took the money, and you’re in your
house, but let me see if I can do some
research.” And so I was looking for
courses where I could do continuing
education to learn about predatory
lending and what the anatomy of
those cases was and lo and behold,
lives that you are responsible for as
the Regional Vice President?
Rawle: When I first heard that I had
850,000 constituents and members, it
didn’t sound that daunting. It was just
a number on a page. AARP has al-
most 40 million members, so the real-
ity of it is at some level everybody’s
responsible, good or bad, for every
one of those 40 million. So it didn’t
seem when I was talking about the
promotion, the opportunity, that it
was that daunting. But in reality, con-
stituent casework is constituent case-
work, no matter what.
So in a membership-type organiza-
tion, you can get calls from any and
everybody, including people who are
elected officials but also who happen
to be dues-paying members of AARP.
They ask, “Why are you doing this?
Why haven’t you done that?” And
they want an answer. If you don’t
have an immediate answer, they don't
want to wait 20 years for green ba-
nanas to grow yellow to get that an-
swer. So in reality, it is manageable,
but I can tell you that it is an awe-
some privilege and responsibility to
know that that many people are rely-
ing on you.
EPM: Well, you’re performing a
great service, so it’s worth it, I would
imagine. What are some specific ser-
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Rawle: We are making great strides
to accommodate a growing older
population in America. But the real-
ity is while we have large numbers of
African-American members – over
two million – we don’t believe we’ve
done our best to demonstrate the
benefits AARP can offer to them. In
many instances what we’re finding is
that African-Americans are aware of
AARP but they don’t know why it’s
relevant to them.
Hispanics and Latinos is another area
of multiculturalism where we could
be doing better. While we have well
over a million members in Hispanic-
Latino populations, what we find is
that many times they are not aware of
AARP. If they don’t speak English
as a first language, there is nothing
similar to AARP in other countries,
except the government. They're not
going to voluntarily give money and
turn their information over to this
entity, without knowing what will be
done with that information.
EPM: With your attorney back-
ground, do you help individual mem-
bers of AARP, or do you represent
the organization?
Rawle: In the Legal Counsel for the
Elderly position, I advised the depart-
ment and individuals. In my current
position we don’t actively practice
law on behalf of individuals, but we
vices and products offered by AARP
which make the organization unique?
Rawle: Oh, I think that the two sin-
gular priorities of AARP which peo-
ple rely on regardless of age, if
they’re a wage-earner, are Social Se-
curity and Medicare. And people
who pay into FICA expect that when
the time comes for them to receive the
paid-in benefit, they’re going to get
their money back at a reasonable rate
of return. They don't expect Congress
or anyone else to tamper with their
benefits. That is where we are; that is
where we’re going to stand.
From a standpoint of protecting Medi-
care, for the most part the recipients
are 65 and older. There are some ex-
ceptions such as people with disabili-
ties -- and you have to prove them.
For a lot of people the only income
they have – one in five people – is
Social Security. The only medical
insurance they have is through Medi-
care. And I think people rely on us to
do that. But beyond that, AARP is
much more because by having 40 mil-
lion members what we’re able to do is
leverage that network to provide
goods and services at reasonable
rates.
EPM: What are some areas where
you believe AARP can possibly im-
prove?
put them in touch with folks, includ-
ing our legal services network at
AARP, who can actually provide that
information.
EPM: Your job requires that you
travel a lot. How do you balance that
with your personal life and family
life?
Rawle: I have a very understanding
family, and I try like the dickens to
make sure that when I’m at work, I’m
at work, but when I’m at home, I’m at
home. So I don’t bring my laptop
home – I’m not saying I never get on
a PDA or a Blackberry from time to
time – but if I’m at home, I’m at
home. In terms of travel, being in
close proximity to headquarters, a lot
of times when the meetings are in the
Washington area, I stay at home in
lieu of staying at a hotel – I think that
saves AARP money, but it gives me
more time at home.
EPM: What would you say to peo-
ple who think that they don’t need
AARP?
Rawle: Well, usually, at first blush,
what I say is that you cannot and will
not hasten death by opening an AARP
birthday card or joining AARP. But
the other thing I would say is life, like
any game, doesn’t end until the sec-
ond half is over. And the reality is
everything we do and everything we
62 | Exceptional People Magazine | May-June 2011
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how to age. And the reason why I
say that is because everything that
brought us to this phone call, some-
body taught us how to do it or we
watched somebody do it. Would you
agree with that?
When it comes to aging, all we do is
have birthdays, whether we choose to
celebrate them or not. And there are
consequences of not learning how to
age properly. So what I want to do is
help people plan for aging. I want to
help people know how to plan for
disability. I want people to be com-
fortable with having a plan for the
hereafter, so that when they leave
their loved ones, there will be no riot
at the repast. I’ve been to one riot at
the repast – I’ve been to one too
many.
And so that’s what I’m hoping for, is
that having been here and shared
some of my experiences and exper-
tise, I've been able to help. I want
people to learn how to age, so they
can live the way they want to live
until it’s time for them to go home to
glory. �
see tells us if you’re not prepared,
you’re already struggling with matters
such as older parents who are facing
health issues and that can place a
drain on you, your income and your
time. You’re already dealing with
younger kids who are not being taught
how handle aging, so you’re going to
be a burden to them when you be-
come your parents’ age.
When we have a family reunion, we
want to make sure one of the pro-
grams we talk about is nutrition and
wellness. When we have a family
reunion or a patriarch or matriarch
birthday, we want to talk about well-
ness and family planning, and those
types of things. But on a more basic
level we fight utility companies to
keep the rates reasonable and prevent
shut-offs from being handled in an
unfair or unreasonable manner. Peo-
ple don’t know we’re doing that.
EPM: What kind of footprint or leg-
acy would you like to leave with re-
spect to your position as Regional
Vice President for AARP?
Rawle: I am truly committed to our
mission and vision of helping people
live better in the second half of life. I
would hope because I was here, hav-
ing been on the legal side of some
issues that complicate the second half
of life, that I would be in the van-
guard of having helped people learn
May-June 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 63