JOHN
P. HAYS is a shareholder of the firm, where his transactional
practice focuses on residential and commercial real estate, corporate and
commercial law, representation of homeowners associations, mediation, and
land use and water law. His litigation practice (both trial and appellate)
emphasizes zoning matters, real estate disputes, quiet title actions, construction
disputes and water law matters before the New Mexico federal district court,
state district courts, and the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Mr. Hays has been
practicing law in New Mexico since 1990.
Mr. Hays also serves as a settlement conference facilitator for the First
Judicial District Court. In that capacity, he has mediated dozens of disputes,
with a very high success rate of achieving a negotiated resolution between
adverse parties.
Mr. Hays is a 1987 graduate of the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley,
where he graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Ecology Law
Quarterly. Prior to moving to New Mexico, he clerked for a U.S. District Court
Judge in San Francisco and practiced with a mid-size firm in San Francisco,
He received his B.A. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College
in Massachusetts in 1978. After college, Mr. Hays worked in Washington, D.C.
for Congressman Charles Schumer of New York City, Senator Paul Sarbanes of
Maryland, and Governor Harry Hughes of Maryland.
Mr. Hays has been involved in numerous community and professional organizations
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Civic Values,
which sponsors the New Mexico High School Mock Trial program and administers
the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) grants for legal aid and law
related education programs. Mr. Hays was also a Member and Vice-Chair of the
Metropolitan Redevelopment Commission of the City of Santa Fe,
which oversaw the development of the downtown railyard property owned by the
City.
Outside of the office, Mr. Hays enjoys all things Italian, reading mysteries
and history, and ice skating.
Click here to see a sample of Mr. Hays’
reported appellate decisions.
