Lambda Legal is proud to announce that Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Senior Counsel and Health Care Strategist, has been selected as a recipient of the 2026 New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) Public Service Award. The award recognizes distinguished service and will be presented at the Public Service Awards Reception on November 17, 2026, at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“Omar embodies what public service means. At a moment when the rights of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV are under relentless attack, he is in the courtroom fighting back and winning. This recognition is richly deserved, and we are proud to call him a colleague,” said Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal.
Gonzalez-Pagan joins a distinguished group of 2026 honorees from across New York’s public service legal community, including attorneys from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mobilization for Justice, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Sanctuary for Families, and Federal Defenders of New York.
A prolific litigator who has argued before six federal courts of appeal, Gonzalez-Pagan was instrumental in two landmark U.S. Supreme Court victories for LGBTQ+ people: Obergefell v. Hodges, which secured marriage equality nationwide, and Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which confirmed that federal law protects LGBTQ+ workers from discrimination.
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gonzalez-Pagan has led many of Lambda Legal’s most significant fights for LGBTQ+ people in Puerto Rico. He was lead counsel in Conde-Vidal v. Rius-Armendariz, which struck down Puerto Rico’s marriage ban, and in Arroyo González v. Rosselló Nevares, which won transgender people born in Puerto Rico the right to accurate birth certificates. This year, he argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on behalf of six nonbinary Puerto Ricans, defending a lower court ruling that Puerto Rico’s refusal to issue birth certificates reflecting their nonbinary identities is unconstitutional.
As Lambda Legal’s Health Care Strategist, Gonzalez-Pagan has been a leading advocate for access to gender-affirming care across the country. He led the legal team that successfully challenged Florida’s ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care after a two-week trial in Dekker, et al., v. Weida, et al., and this year helped lead the efforts to stop the Trump Administration’s attempt to seize the private medical records of transgender young people treated at NYU Langone in Coe, et. al. v. Blanche, et. al.
Gonzalez-Pagan has been part of the litigation team in eight of Lambda Legal’s nine cases challenging the second Trump Administration’s actions targeting LGBTQ people. He has helped restore hundreds of millions of federal funding for LGBTQ health centers, community organizations, and health researchers in San Francisco AIDS Foundation v. Trump and GLMA v. NIH, stopped executive orders and policies attacking access to healthcare from going into effect in PFLAG v. Trump and Coe v. Blanche, and helped restore the Pride flag to the Stonewall National Monument in Gilbert Baker Foundation v. U.S. Department of Interior, for example.
The NYCLA honor adds to a long list of recognition for Gonzalez-Pagan’s work, including the NYC Bar Association’s Arthur S. Leonard Award and the LGBT Bar Association of New York’s Community Excellence Award.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award alongside such dedicated attorneys serving the public and the public interest. The fight for equality and justice is multifaceted and never ending. In fighting for the rights of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV, I am inspired by our plaintiffs who stand up to fight not just for their rights, but those of others. At Lambda Legal, we know that our fight is far from over. It is a privilege to be able to do this work,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan.
Before joining Lambda Legal in 2014, Gonzalez-Pagan served the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as an Assistant Attorney General, where he was part of the team that successfully challenged the Defense of Marriage Act. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Cornell University.