We continue our rundown of the area's elite corporate counsel. (If you missed it, here's Part 1.) Then tomorrow, March 11 at 6pm in Crystal City, check out a special reception recognizing this great in-house talent, including music, food, drink and networking. You're invited!
Cindy Lewin is a nonprofit corporate counsel powerhouse. She has been the EVP and General Counsel to the AARP since 2010, following turns as National Wildlife Federation SVP and GC, and Volunteers of America EVP and GC. Before that, she worked at Lichtman, Trister, Singer & Ross and Arnold & Porter. Her legal team of 11 lawyers and five nonlegal staff serves an organization that has 37 million members—with another 4.38 million Gen Xers turning 50 this year and coming under the AARP umbrella. The GC's office handles a lot of IP issues around people using the well-known AARP brand without permission, Cindy says, and as a nonprofit is always looking at the best ways to advance the mission while bringing in revenue to support it. It also manages internal audit, enterprise risk management, and ethics and compliance. With lifespans lengthening, the nonprofit is starting new initiatives. One is LifeReimagined.org, which helps people think through life transitions. Another brought in the smaller nonprofit Experience Corps, matching 50-plus-year-old tutors with underprivileged children to practice reading, and grew it by 50 percent to serve 32,000 children this school year.
What you didn't know about Cindy:
Her USTA women's tennis team made it to the VA state championships last summer.
She clerked in LA for federal Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, who was married to the CEO of MGM. A movie was filmed in the judge's chambers.
She grew up in Colorado but came east for Wellesley College and Yale Law.
As National Wildlife Federation GC, Cindy took a group of members on a horseback expedition across Mexico to the home of the monarch butterflies in the Oyamel fir forests.
