Dean Graybill
Dean Graybill is a lead attorney at AARP Foundation and has served over three decades the public interest realm. As a manager and litigator at the Federal Trade Commission, he oversaw enforcement actions against telemarketing schemes targeting seniors (e.g., Operation Senior Sentinel); brought cases against bogus health supplement sellers; and participated in antitrust matters involving high gasoline and health care prices. In a prior stint at the Foundation, he served six years as vice president of litigation. Dean is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Contact Dean: dgraybill@aarp.org
Rachel N. Lokken
Rachel N. Lokken is a lead attorney at AARP Foundation with extensive experience providing strategic representation to individual, corporate and public interest clients at the state and federal levels. Previously, her legal practice focused primarily on complex commercial litigation and business matters, appellate litigation, and constitutional compliance. Rachel’s work ethic and dedication to her clients led to favorable litigation results and strategic settlements. Passionate about public interest work, she has a longstanding history of service as counsel in the areas of affordable housing for people with low to moderate income, child advocacy, music licensing, and domestic violence. Rachel has served on the Supreme Court of New Jersey District X Fee Arbitration Committee as an appointed volunteer attorney and received her certificate in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan and her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College.
Contact Rachel: rlokken@aarp.org
Sébastien Monzón Rueda
Sébastien Monzón Rueda is an attorney at AARP Foundation. Previously, he spent four years as a staff attorney in the Tenant Advocacy and Support Practice at Legal Counsel for the Elderly, where he represented older adults with low to moderate income in housing-related cases before the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Sébastien, who speaks Spanish fluently, also litigated reasonable accommodation cases and discrimination claims before administrative bodies, such as the D.C. Housing Authority and the Office of Administrative Hearings. Prior to that, he clerked for the Honorable Tyrona De Witt and the Honorable Diane Lepley at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Sébastien is a board member of the Washington Council of Lawyers—the public interest bar association for D.C.—and serves as co-chair of its Advocacy Committee. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia and his law degree, cum laude, from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
Contact Sébastien: smonzonrueda@aarp.org
Ali Naini
Ali Naini is a senior lead attorney at AARP Foundation. Ali, who speaks English, Farsi and Turkish, expressed an early and keen interest in public policy, researching microfinancing in Cairo before working with the Harlem Children’s Zone on health, financial and housing projects. He then earned his litigation stripes in a three-year stint at the D.C. Attorney General’s Office, where he won four jury trials and 21 court motions, handling a wide variety of litigation tasks. In 2016, Ali returned to public interest work, serving as senior staff attorney at Mobilization for Justice’s Foreclosure Prevention Project in New York City. There, he tirelessly represented clients facing loss of their homes, handled individual cases, lobbied for reforms, and first-chaired a trial. Ali graduated from the University of Virginia and the George Washington University Law School, where he served as managing editor of the George Washington Law Review.
Contact Ali: anaini@aarp.org
Lauren Naylor
Lauren Naylor is an attorney at AARP Foundation. Previously, she spent seven years at a plaintiff-side employment law firm representing federal and private sector employees in complex discrimination and retaliation matters. Lauren has represented employees before administrative bodies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as in state and federal courts. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from Rhode Island College and earned her law degree from George Washington University Law School, where she received the Ogden W. Fields Graduate Award for Excellence in Labor Law.
Contact Lauren: lnaylor@aarp.org
Julie Nepveu
Julie Nepveu is a senior lead attorney at AARP Foundation. In her role, she advances the interests of older people nationwide in the areas of access to courts, consumer protection, mortgage and reverse mortgage servicing and foreclosure defense, fair housing, disability rights, and public utilities. Her work includes litigating cases, filing amicus briefs, drafting comments on proposed federal regulation and legislation, and providing support to AARP state office staff. Julie previously worked as staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in the Housing and Community Development Project. Prior to that, she represented subsidized tenants with low income at Legal Services of Northern Virginia. She also served as a judicial law clerk at the U.S. Claims Court to the Hon. Thomas J. Lydon. Julie earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont and her law degree from the University of Maine School of Law.
Contact Julie: jnepveu@aarp.org
Rebecca Rodgers
Rebecca Rodgers is a senior lead attorney at AARP Foundation. Previously, she spent 10 years at Disability Rights Advocates, where she litigated complex disability rights class actions related to access to health care, emergency preparedness, transportation, and public programs and services. Her representative cases include lawsuits against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that challenged their failure to make the New York City subway system accessible for people with mobility disabilities. Rebecca received her law degree from George Washington University Law School and her bachelor’s degree in art history from George Washington University.
Contact Rebecca: rrodgers@aarp.org
Stefan Shaibani
Stefan Shaibani is a lead attorney at AARP Foundation. Previously, he operated a solo and small firm practice for 16 years representing plaintiffs in automobile negligence, premises liability, first-party insurance, and business tort cases in the D.C. metropolitan area. In this capacity, he conducted bench and jury trials, depositions, and mediations, and he worked with expert witnesses in fields such as orthopedics, neurosurgery, neurology, pathology, oncology, vocational rehabilitation, economics, accident reconstruction, and premises security. Stefan has represented many clients who sustained harms and losses, including older adults with low income and people experiencing homelessness, due to negligence of individuals and corporations defended by casualty insurers. Stefan also served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Commercial Litigation Branch as well as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Boston University.
Contact Stefan: sshaibani@aarp.org
Sam Wehrle
Samantha (Sam) Wehrle is an attorney at AARP Foundation. Previously, she served as a civil rights and employment fellow at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, where she challenged discriminatory housing and workplace practices through impact litigation. Prior to that, Sam was a Stanford Law fellow at Disability Rights Maryland, where she provided legal representation to youth with heightened behavioral needs and laid the groundwork for litigation and legislative efforts aimed at preventing youth with disabilities from entering Department of Social Services custody. Sam received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Iowa, where she graduated with university honors and honors in philosophy, and earned her law degree with high pro bono distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was integrally involved in numerous law student organizations, including the SLS First Generation Professionals (academic chair, mentor, cofounder), Law Students for Disability Rights (co-president), and Stanford’s Social Security Disability Pro Bono Project (student director). Sam was named one of D.C.’s “Top 40 Under 40” by The National Trial Lawyers.
Contact Sam: swehrle@aarp.org
Mary William
Mary William is an attorney at AARP Foundation. Previously, she worked as a housing attorney, providing direct client services at both the Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C., and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid in Minneapolis. She has represented defendants in eviction cases concerning non-payment of rent and lease breaches. Mary also litigated affirmative cases on behalf of tenants who were locked out of their homes or seeking repairs. Prior to her work in housing litigation, Mary was an attorney at Rainbow Health (then known as JustUs Health) in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she represented clients appealing the denial of Social Security benefits. She received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Rochester and a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.
Contact Mary: mwilliam@aarp.org
Vickie Williamson
Victoria (Vickie) Williamson is a lead attorney at AARP Foundation with over two decades of experience as a litigator. She began her career at a legal services organization in New York City that represented people who were HIV positive and had low income on an array of issues, including housing, immigration and benefits. Later Vickie represented tenants, including domestic partners and people with disabilities, seeking to retain protected status in their apartments under the rent stabilization and rent control laws of New York City. During the last 20 years, Vickie’s career has focused on protecting workers’ rights, representing private sector, federal sector and congressional employees in matters involving discrimination, harassment and retaliation. She has litigated matters in an array of venues, including administrative agencies, federal agencies, state and federal courts across the country, and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. Immediately prior to joining AARP Foundation, Vickie served as a partner at a plaintiff-side employment law practice. She also provides volunteer legal services with frequency at Pandemic Legal, where she represents people who developed COVID-related disabilities, and the Legal Network for Gender Equity, an arm of the National Women’s Law Center. Vickie is on the Board for First Shift Justice Project, an organization that protects the rights of working parents in the DMV area and is an active member of the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Metropolitan Washington Lawyers Association. She received her bachelor’s degree from Florida International University and her law degree from the City University of New York School of Law.
Contact Vickie: vwilliamson@aarp.org
David Yellin
David Yellin is a lead attorney at AARP Foundation with over a decade of litigation experience. Most recently, David spent six years working at Rising for Justice, where he provided direct representation to hundreds of clients facing eviction and housing insecurity in the District of Columbia. As the director of the Housing Advocacy and Litigation Clinic, he taught clinical students at Georgetown Law School, the George Washington University Law School, and the University of the District of Columbia Law School. David also has worked on a variety of complex civil matters and white-collar criminal defense matters at a litigation boutique in D.C. and at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York. In addition, he served as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. David spent two years clerking for Judge Paul W. Grimm in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He received his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Colgate University, a master’s degree with honors in comparative politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and his law degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.
Contact David: dyellin@aarp.org
