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Overview
Meg Meister has served clients for over thirty years in the areas of real estate, commercial transactions and business lending. She guides businesses through siting facilities, completes sales and tax free exchanges, represents buyers and sellers in stock and asset transactions, and negotiates and drafts leases and other real estate and business documents. Meg advises companies doing business on Indian lands and negotiates and structures business transactions involving Indian tribes and Indian lands. Meg represents lenders and borrowers in a variety of lending transactions.
Meg’s transaction work often focuses on energy, both traditional and renewable. She represents renewable energy developers and works with oil and gas operators and producers and pipeline companies.
Entity selection and formation, governance issues, and mergers and acquisitions are also components of Meg’s business practice. Additionally, Meg performs duties as general counsel to non-profit and for-profit entities, providing counsel and perspective on an array of issues.
Chambers USA has recognized Meg with a top ranking in Real Estate law. Chambers noted, “'[Meg] has an impressive reputation throughout the state among both clients and peers. Clients are quick to praise her fantastic ability as a communicator and her amazing depth of knowledge,’ and that [she] is lauded by market commentators as ‘the state expert on real estate.'” She is among those listed by Best Lawyers in America® in Commercial Transactions/UCC Law, Corporate Law and Real Estate Law, and has been recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” in Albuquerque in 2020 for Real Estate Law and in 2022 and 2025 for Corporate Law. Meg has been selected as one of the Top 25 New Mexico Super Lawyers five times. She has achieved Martindale-Hubbell’s AV® Preeminent rating and named a “Woman of Influence” and “Best of the Bar” in 2009 by New Mexico Business Weekly. Most recently, Meg was featured in Albuquerque Business First’s “Who’s Who in Law”. The article showcases ten prominent area attorneys representing different sectors of the legal field across New Mexico.
Meg also finds time to assist in community endeavors. She is a Past Chair of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, a board member for Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance, treasurer of the Association of Real Property and Infrastructure, and a Past President of Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico.
Meg serves as the Chair of the Corporate/Banking/Real Estate Practice Group and Co-Chair of the Renewable Energy Service Group and has served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, running, skiing, and being a part of her book group.
Education
University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 1990, cum laude
Trinity University, B.A. in English, 1987, cum laude
Bar Admissions
New Mexico
Texas
Experience
- Multi-step exchange of real estate among Bureau of Land Management, Commissioner of Public Lands and two private entities. The transaction included negotiation of various exchange agreements, coordinating exchange procedures and negotiating necessary private agreements.
- Representation of mixed-use downtown development, including development, covenants and condominium documentation, leasing, and sales, and financing for the project.
- Provide real estate and financing support for numerous wind, solar and gas-fired electric generation developers, including private and public land acquisition, title issues, land use, financing and required opinion letters. Work has included leases and rights of way with the New Mexico state land office.
- Negotiate and draft pipeline rights-of-way and business arrangements related to operations on tribal land.
- Review and provide opinions on oil and gas operator financing transactions.
- Facilitate development arrangements for oil and gas operations on tribal land.
- Work on acquisition of metal recycling project through transfer of assets.
- Restructure of non-profit entity to include asset-owing entities and operating entities and coordinating such restructuring with lenders and bond-holders.
- Annexation of large parcel of property proposed for mixed use development, including bulk plat and initial zoning designations.
- General outside counsel to Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors and Southwest Multiple Listing Service, including contract drafting and review, code of ethics matters, and multiple listing service compliance.
- Structure and draft fiber optic public/private arrangement to create fiber optic loop for distance-based learning in New Mexico.
- Liquor license acquisition and transfer for new and existing convenience store locations around New Mexico.
Activities
Professional Activities
- Association for Real Property and Infrastructure, Treasurer
- Economic Forum of Albuquerque, Board of Directors
- Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, Trustee-at-Large, 2017-present
- Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, Renewable Energy Task Force, Chair, 2020-2022
- Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, Renewable Energy and Electricity Section of the 69th Annual Institute, Chair, 2022-2023
- American College of Real Estate Lawyers, Fellow, Programs Committee Chair 2009-2010, Board of Governors, 2010
- Anglo American Real Property Institute, Fellow
- American Bar Association, Member, Sections on Real Property, Probate and Trust, Business Law, and Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law
- State Bar of New Mexico Real Estate Specialization Sub-committee, Chair, 2006-2009
- New Mexico Real Property Institute, Program Chair, 1998-2000
Community Activities
- Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance, Board of Directors
- Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors, 2010-present; Chair-Elect, 2016; Chair, 2017-2018
- United Way of Central New Mexico, Board of Directors, 2016-2022
- Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico, President, 2011
- Leadership Albuquerque Alumni Association Board, 2005-2007
- Leadership Albuquerque Curriculum Committee, 2004-2006
News & Articles
News
Discourse
Presentations
- Due Diligence Done Right: Practical and Ethical Issues for Landmen and Attorneys, Annual Institute, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, 2016, Margaret Lewis Meister and Lesley J. Nash
- Let’s Get This Project Built – What’s the Market in Construction Lending Today, Intermediate Real Estate Financing Webinar, American Bar Association and American College of Real Estate Lawyers, 2016
- Real Estate Transactions for Charter Schools, New Mexico Real Property Institute, 2014
- Commercial Lease Provisions and Issues, 11th Annual Commercial & Residential Landlord-Tenant Law, Sterling Education Services, April 24, 2013
Honors
- American College of Real Estate Lawyers, Fellow
- Association of Real Property and Infrastructure, Fellow
- Best Lawyers® Corporate Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Albuquerque, 2022, 2025
- Best Lawyers® Real Estate Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Albuquerque, 2020
- Best Lawyers in America®, in Commercial Transactions/ UCC Law, 2018-present
- Best Lawyers in America®, in Corporate Law and Real Estate Law, 2007-present
- Chambers USA Directories of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Real Estate Law, 2005-present
- Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent® Peer Review Rated; Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers, 2014
- New Mexico Business Weekly, Best of the Bar, 2009
- New Mexico Business Weekly, Woman of Influence, 2009
- Southwest Super Lawyers® (derived from a lawyer survey) 2007-present; The Top 25 New Mexico Super Lawyers, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2016, 2017
- Who’s Who in American Law
