Reed Smith announced that Dallas Office Managing Partner Omar Alaniz is among the 2024 100 LGBTQ+ Executives selected by INvolve, the diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy and global network, supported by YouTube. This is Alaniz’s second consecutive year receiving this recognition.
INvolve’s Outstanding Role Model Lists celebrate LGBTQ+ business leaders and their allies for breaking down barriers and creating more inclusive workplaces around the world.
“Reed Smith cultivates and supports an environment that welcomes and affirms diversity,” Alaniz said. “I am proud to promote our firm’s continuing progress in recruiting, retaining and promoting LGBTQ+ individuals in key roles, including significant leadership positions in each of our global offices. It is an honor to be recognized among INvolve and YouTube’s champions of workplace inclusion and change for my efforts again this year.”
A 2003 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Alaniz joined Reed Smith in 2020. He is a member of the firm’s Restructuring & Insolvency Group, focused on advising companies and their boards on liability management solutions in distress situations, including out of court workouts and Chapter 11 restructurings.
Alaniz’s recognition by INvolve and YouTube reflects his ongoing leadership of Reed Smith’s PRISM, its 300+ member LGBTQ+ global business inclusion group, which he now chairs after serving as the group’s U.S. chair for two years. Under his leadership, PRISM has made additional strides in ensuring the firm is a safe space for LGBTQ+ attorneys and staff, as well as in fostering partnerships with other LGBTQ+ organizations, including the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, Lambda Legal, A4TE and Out Leadership.
INvolve honored him also for collaborative programs with other Reed Smith affinity groups and coordinating with the firm’s management to support the promotion of LGBTQ+ attorneys. Alaniz also recently participated in the Career Services and Job Search Strategies for Law Students panel at the Lavender Law Conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. Later this month, he will present an Interview Masterclass for the OutLaw group of the University of Texas School of Law.
“We congratulate Omar for once more earning recognition from INvolve for his advocacy and support efforts on behalf of LGBTQ+ diversity, equity and inclusion in Dallas and across our worldwide platform,” said Alan York, Reed Smith’s global chair of diversity, equity and inclusion. “He is a passionate, energetic and charismatic leader who continues to make a significant positive contribution to our firmwide culture and environment. This honor from INvolve is well-deserved validation of his tremendous influence here and within the legal profession.”
Alaniz created Reed Smith’s first PRISM ally award, which will be given annually to an individual in the firm who demonstrates outstanding support of its LGBTQ+ lawyers. He also coordinated the 2022 and 2023 QueeRS Connect initiative, a weekend-long celebration across the firm’s platform during Pride month each year to strengthen and affirm the firmwide LGBTQ+ community. He likewise led Reed Smith’s National Coming Out Day – a joint program with financial services client in New York, as well as an initiative addressing challenges for the firm’s LGBTQ+ attorneys and staff in as a part of its Asia Pride programming.
In addition, Alaniz serves in key DEI leadership roles for the American College of Bankruptcy (ACB) and American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). In 2023, as a 5th Circuit Council Member of the DEI Committee of the ACB, he launched the Diversity in Restructuring & Insolvency Volunteer Effectiveness program to train ACB fellows in inclusion best practices, increase diversity in the ACB and support the careers of diversity attorneys, including LGBTQ+ members, in bankruptcy law. In 2021, he developed and presented a Diversity in Insolvency webinar for senior restructuring attorneys on best practices for creating inclusive workplaces and recruiting, training, mentoring and career building for diverse attorneys which engaged 600 participants – the largest webinar in the organization’s history. Since 2022, Alaniz has also served as an at-large member of the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation Board and as on the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association Board. He received Texas Lawyers’ inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Champion award in 2022.
Alaniz and others named to INvolve’s Empower, Heroes, Outstanding and Enable role models – including Elizabeth Brandon, Julia López, Tamara Box and Natsayi Mawere – will be honored at a gala dinner to be held at the London Natural History Museum.
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