Uniform Performance

Some cases will stick with Andre Pennington forever. The founder of Pennington Law joined the Air Force early in his legal career, starting as a prosecutor before going on to handle estate planning matters and advocate for airmen who had made mistakes. In one case, he represented an airman who had risen through the ranks quickly. In a short amount of time, the man went from a desk job stateside to driving tanks in Iraq around 2010.

“I’m sorry to be graphic,” Pennington says, “but he’d talk to his friends in the morning and then need to clean them up off the battlefields later on in the day.”

When the airman returned stateside, he considered therapy, Pennington says, but his unit discouraged it because it made him miss work. Instead, he leaned on alcohol and marijuana. When his mistakes piled up, he faced an administrative discharge—the lowest level of discharge—which would strip away his honorable rank.

“The government was turning its back on someone that’s really struggling as a result of something they volunteered to do,” Pennington says. “If I gave up on him, he’s discharged with nothing. No therapy. Can’t get a good job. Maybe he doesn’t make it.”

In the end, Pennington was able to win a medical retirement so the airman could maintain his benefits as well as access to other military support services.

This story isn’t unique, Pennington says. This airman was just one of many he’s proud to have advocated for. “We as a country have an obligation to care for those people, and my job was to force the government to keep their promise.”

And, it turns out, Pennington is familiar with this type of story.

“I heard stories of my grandfather,” he says, “who got back from the Korean War and became a severe alcoholic and neglected his family—my family.”

Post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t talked about in the 1950s, much less diagnosed or treated. But the ripple effect of his grandfather’s condition could be felt in his own life, generations later. Pennington’s childhood in Nebraska and Southern California was challenging, moving between divorced parents and foster care. He skated by with mediocre grades in high school and community college until he decided to buckle down and study law, graduating from California State University and Loyola Law School.

“I just wanted to make the most of myself,” he says. “My family tree wasn’t so good, so the vision I had was, I gotta break my branch off and go plant it somewhere else.”

He commissioned in the Air Force in 2007, about a year after graduating from law school. “When I was a little boy, my dad was a Marine and he always wore the uniform,” Pennington says, “and it just got lodged in my mind to serve the country. I personally believe that every male should serve our country for a time period.”

Pennington spent five years on active duty in the Air Force and over a decade in the reserves with the rank of major. As a reservist, he did a variety of jobs, from leading both defense and prosecution teams at air bases across the country to serving as an instructor for litigators within the military, all while growing his own estate planning practice in Arizona.

He left the reserves in August 2022 to spend more time with his wife and six kids, and to focus on Pennington Law. While his time in the Air Force is behind him, he carries the same ethos with him today. “My role is to look out for the most vulnerable people in the community,” he says. He wants to not only help retirees and those nearing the end of their lives understand how to transfer wealth, “but make sure there’s wealth to transfer.”

There’s nothing worse than bullying, he adds, whether it’s a widow losing everything because of an unfair system, a veteran with PTSD and no support from the country they served, or a foster child trying to find stability and grow a new family tree.

Supporting those who have traditionally been left behind is Pennington’s mission in his legal practice; his work with Arizona’s Children Coalition, a martial arts group he co-founded that supports at-risk youth; and in life in general.

Imagine if someone had stepped in generations ago and helped his own family, Pennington says. “What of my story would I have avoided? For me, it’s that important.”