Alaina King Benford

Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright

Alaina King Benford is a trial-tested litigation partner in the Houston office of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP where she maintains a diverse litigation practice. Alaina joined the firm (then known as Fulbright & Jaworski LLP) in 2000. As lead counsel, she has tried cases to jury verdict in state and federal courts and has represented clients in a wide range of arbitration and litigation disputes.

Alaina is a fellow of Leadership Counsel on Legal Diversity, the Texas Bar Association and Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society comprised of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers. She is a graduate of the American Board of Trial Advocates National Trial Academy and serves as faculty for her firm’s trial training program for all first year litigation attorneys.

A longstanding champion of diversity and inclusion, in 2016, Alaina received Norton Rose Fulbright’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Award, given to recognize individuals who embody the firm’s principles of equality, unity and integrity and have advanced the firm’s diversity and inclusion strategy, programs and employee networks. While serving as hiring partner, she crafted initiatives that led to more diverse summer associate classes which gained national recognition. Alaina established her firm’s partnership with the University of Houston Law Center’s Pre-Law Pipeline Program to increase the diversity of law school applicants who are members of underrepresented groups in the legal profession.

Alaina graduated from Thurgood Marshall School of Law, magna cum laude, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Thurgood Marshall Law Review. She has served on the boards of Annunciation Orthodox School, the Rise School, and Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston. She is a trustee of the Association of Women Attorneys Foundation and is board president of the Ensemble Theatre, the oldest and largest African American theater in the Southwest.