Charlie San Miguel
Charlie San Miguel knows exactly when he decided to become a lawyer.
After college, San Miguel quit one home health company in San Antonio to work for a competitor. Soon after he started the second job, he was sued by “a vexatious former employer who had 40 employees and a full-time lawyer who did nothing but sue people.”
“It was a baseless claim, but I had to hire a lawyer and that was painfully expensive for me at that time because I was making $9 an hour,” he said. “But the lawyer representing me was the first lawyer I ever met, and he clearly was doing better than me financially. He had a nice car and he lived well.
“So, I began to think about law school,” he said.
San Miguel won his lawsuit, went to law school, was hired by Locke Lord to do corporate transactional work and is now the vice president of legal at Houston-based Enterprise Products, an energy midstream company with a $45 billion market cap. In addition, he negotiated the acquisition of Texas Monthly in 2019 and now serves as the popular magazine’s general counsel.
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A University of Houston Law Center alum, San Miguel has worked on about 30 mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and securities offerings with a combined value exceeding $10 billion since he joined Enterprise in 2014.
“Notwithstanding the challenging environment of the past year created by commodity price volatility and the COVID-19 pandemic, Charlie has helped Enterprise Products pursue a number of strategic transactions and projects,” said John Goodgame, partner of Akin Gump in Houston. “In the past two years alone, he has served as lead legal counsel on more than 10 significant transactions for Enterprise.
“As one example, Charlie played a pivotal role as lead lawyer in the joint venturing of a crude pipeline project valued at more than $2 billion,” Goodgame said.
On top of that, San Miguel is an accomplished musician – playing bass for the rock band The Drift and drums for Hard Luck Revival and Nick Gaitan.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Charlie San Miguel as the recipient of the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (6-20 lawyers).
ACC Houston and The Lawbook will honor San Miguel and all 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award finalists Jan. 13 at a ceremony at the Four Seasons in downtown Houston.
“As evidenced by the essential role he plays advising on corporate legal matters, Charlie is a leader both within Enterprise and within the legal community,” said Goodgame, who nominated San Miguel for the award.
Lawyers who work with San Miguel said he has an excellent grasp of Enterprise’s business and the midstream energy sector.
“Charlie is a quick study and easily understands complicated issues, often much quicker than other people in the room,” said Locke Lord partner Terry Radney. “He is very commercial. He understands the big picture, but at the same time he doesn’t hesitate to get down into the weeds. I am constantly amazed at the number and diversity of deals that Charlie works on.”
As one of 20 lawyers in Enterprise’s corporate legal department, San Miguel told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview that he enjoys M&A dealmaking.
“I love the negotiations process — managing outside counsel, reviewing documents, getting internal shareholder buy-in and getting the deal across the finish line,” he said. “I don’t see myself as a great technical lawyer. I enjoy the people part — bridging the gap between the business-side folks. I love getting a good result for the client.”
San Miguel was born and grew up in Alice, a small town in South Texas, where he lived until he graduated high school in 1991.
His parents spent most of their careers as social workers. His mother worked for Head Start and focused on early childhood education and development. His father’s work focused on the elderly, managing adult day care and assisted living programs.
“My parents have been my life mentors by example,” he said. “They prioritized family and they have always been consistently supportive of me. That example is what I use to test myself against when I’m at risk of letting work and other personal interests take more time than they should.”
San Miguel received his bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995.
He chose the University of Houston Law Center because he wanted to attend law school in a Texas city with a strong legal market.
“That has turned out to be a great choice for me,” he said. “Because I stayed in Houston, I come across former classmates regularly, many of whom are now law firm partners, judges and general counsel themselves.”
During law school, San Miguel did summer clerkships at Locke Lord and Exxon Mobil, but chose to work at the law firm to get four years of legal experience on his resume.
In 2006, he made the move in-house to Huntsman International where he handled domestic and international contracts for the chemical company — a position he held for two years.
“Huntsman gave me the opportunity to do international work all over Latin America, which is what I enjoyed most,” he said.
For six years — 2008 to 2014 — he was senior counsel at Direct Energy, which had been a client of Locke Lord.
In 2014, Enterprise Products hired San Miguel to manage its legal work for IT and trucking, which needed dedicated legal support. His role changed over the next two years after he successfully led a couple major transactions for pipeline operations.
For example, Enterprise had San Miguel take a leading role in its $2.15 billion acquisition of EFS Midstream in 2015.
Since then, he has led the Enterprise legal team advising on multiple transactions related to the Sea Port Oil Terminal, an offshore crude oil terminal project valued at more than $2 billion. In one of the transactions, Enterprise entered into a long-term agreement with Chevron to support the development of the terminal.
“Charlie provides critical support with respect to legal deal structuring, drafting and negotiation of the option agreement and joint venture terms,” Goodgame said. “In his seven years with Enterprise, Charlie has advised on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial agreements and other transactions critical to growing Enterprise’s business with an aggregate value in excess of $10 billion.”
San Miguel said the deals he handles for Enterprise are “by far the most sophisticated and challenging, which makes the work exciting for me.”
“During the last two years, there was more focus on the joint venture front than the M&A front, and during that period I’ve worked on a propylene pipeline joint venture that followed an earlier ethylene pipeline joint venture, reflecting an expanding business in petrochemicals,” he said.
“More recently, I’ve also become involved in Enterprise’s evolutionary technologies efforts, as we work with other industry players — such as a joint study with Chevron that was announced in recent months — to explore possibilities in developing new technologies that leverage Enterprise’s existing networks to better manage our carbon footprint and offer new midstream services that support a lower carbon economy,” he said.
GC of Texas Monthly
In 2019, San Miguel added a new client to his portfolio: Texas Monthly.
Enterprise Products Co., a privately held affiliate of the midstream giant and family office led by Randa Duncan Williams, the daughter of Enterprise founder Dan Duncan, tapped San Miguel to buy the popular magazine that focuses on Texas politics and culture for an undisclosed amount of money. Sources estimate the sale price was mid-eight digits.
Williams asked San Miguel to add the title “Texas Monthly general counsel” to his bio.
“My role covers all legal matters for Texas Monthly, which includes a broad range of practice areas including rights licensing, intellectual property portfolio management and First Amendment matters,” he said.
“I love that my Texas Monthly role allows me to work so closely with very creative people in a completely different industry,” he said. “It keeps me close to Texas culture, music and arts, which are all subjects I’m personally interested in. Being able to attend Texas Monthly events as a staffer is also a nice benefit.”
San Miguel said his representation of Texas Monthly has helped raise his profile, even among relatives.
“Most of my family has no idea what Enterprise is or does — they think it may be a car rental company,” he said. “But everyone in my family knows Texas Monthly.”
The Texas General Counsel Forum also honored San Miguel in November with its award for “Outstanding Managing Counsel for a Large Legal Department.”
“As a leader, Charlie sets the example through his intellect, work ethic and easygoing style, which naturally appeals to people with whom he works,” Radney said. “Charlie would not ask someone to do something that he was not willing to do himself. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this award.”
San Miguel said that his love of music fits nicely with his role at Texas Monthly.
“Music has been an essential part of my life since I was a teenager, and today is even more important to me than it ever was,” he said. “I grew up around music with a father who himself was a lifelong musician. I’ve played drums for over 30 years and picked up bass guitar last year when the pandemic started.”
As the only lawyer in his family, San Miguel said he knows he has a responsibility to mentor others. “I recognize that my career would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for people that helped open doors for me and I take my responsibility to do the same for others seriously,” he said.