Dawn Meidinger

Partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP

2025 MEDAL OF MERIT RECIPIENT

Dawn Meidinger joined the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP as a Regulatory Affairs partner in 2024. Meidinger has multidisciplinary experience permitting mining, linear and renewable energy projects and managing all aspects of necessary federal approvals (including NEPA, NHPA, and ESA processes) while working with various federal and state agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and Arizona State Land Department.

Meidinger has significant experience in project development on public lands. She has acted as lead counsel on significant BLM land exchanges and state land purchases and the permitting of numerous exploration and mine plans of operation and solar projects in Arizona and New Mexico. She also has experience in land development, entitling master planned communities and industrial projects and negotiating related development agreements.

She has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America® for expertise in Energy Law, Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law and Mining Law (2016-2024) and been ranked by Chambers USA for the past seven years as a leading environmental lawyer. In 2017 she was included on the list of Most Influential Women in Arizona, by AZ Business and AZRE magazines.

She is a member of the Arizona Mining Association, where she also served as a board member from 2016-2108. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Phoenix Zoo (Arizona Center for Nature Conservation) and has twice served as a trustee for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (now known as the Foundation for Energy and Natural Resources Law or FENRL).

Prior to joining Dorsey, Meidinger was a partner at Fennemore for nearly 20 years and prior to that was in-house counsel at Phelps Dodge Corporation from 1996-2002. She received her J.D. from Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and her B.S. from Arizona State University.

Meidinger received a full athletic scholarship to attend Arizona State University to play volleyball, where she honed her focus and competitive nature. As the daughter of a retired exploration driller in Wyoming, her familiarity and passion for natural resource development and wide open spaces influenced her choice of career.

She enjoys the great outdoors and spending time with her significant other (Craig) and their Vizsla, a rescued Hungarian sporting dog named Rocco.

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