Meet Alexander L. Reid: 2022 D.C. Bar President-Elect Candidate
March 16, 2022
The D.C. Bar’s 2022 general and Communities elections will run from April 28 to June 1. Eligible voters will receive an email link to their ballots via Survey & Ballot Systems, an independent vendor administering the elections. Voting will be held exclusively online. View the full slate of candidates.
Here, get to know Alexander L. Reid, one of two candidates running for D.C. Bar president-elect for the 2022–2023 term. The president-elect serves for one year before becoming president, and then continues in office a third year as immediate past president.
Results of the elections will be announced on the Bar’s website and during the 2022 Celebration of Leadership on June 23 at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel.
Alexander L. Reid is a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP and team leader of the firm’s tax-exempt organizations and charitable giving team. His tax practice covers a range of matters, including tax controversy and litigation, planning, and transactional matters as well as board governance.
Previously Reid was of counsel and then partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where he advised clients on governance, corporate structure, and contractual matters. He has also served as legislation counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress and as a fellow at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. A graduate of Yale University, he received his JD and LLM from New York University School of Law.
Reid has been an active member of the D.C. Bar for more than 15 years. He recently completed several terms as chair of the Communities Committee and previously served as chair of the Taxation Community and its Exempt Organizations Subcommittee. In addition, Reid is vice chair of the ABA Tax Section’s Exempt Organizations Committee and former regulatory affairs chair of the TEGE Exempt Organizations Council.
As a tax professional who represents tax-exempt organizations, Reid says that his understanding of the Internal Revenue Code, which governs what nonprofit organizations can and can’t do, has given him a sophisticated understanding of nonprofit governance. “As a tax lawyer, when you come down to it, I’m also a governance lawyer and a specialist in helping organizations think through how they operate in order to achieve their missions. That’s really what I do, professionally,” he says.
Reid notes that the pandemic has provided the D.C. Bar an opportunity to lead. “In times of rapid change and transformation, practitioners look to institutions like the D.C. Bar for guidance,” he says. “We can be there for them and help newly minted lawyers enter the profession and find a fulfilling career.”
Inclusivity is an important value and priority for Reid, whose older brother, Aaron, was born with Down syndrome. To help people with disabilities, Reid volunteered with the National Down Syndrome Society to draft the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014, which allows states to create tax-advantaged savings programs to help pay for disability expenses. Reid says his relationship with his brother has taught him that inclusivity requires affirmative efforts. “I’m interested in who is not at the table . . . What can we do to not only reach out to them, but bring our activities to them so that everyone can participate? These are questions that, if we push ourselves to answer, can [help us] learn about ourselves, as well as expand the scope and breadth of what we do in our profession.”
The District of Columbia has incredible assets to work with, Reid says, citing its diversity and intellectual leadership. “I like to think that D.C. is the place where lawyers create the law, rather than just practice the law,” he says. “Our profession emanates from Washington.”
