Christina Sanders was just five years old when she started horseback riding lessons. Riding became her passion and she successfully competed in cross-country competitions and events.
“Riding and jumping at breakneck speeds is not easy and not without risks,” says Bruce Collins, her father. “But Christina showed no fear. She was amazing to watch.”
Three decades later, Sanders has applied the principles of hard work and fearlessness to her career as a corporate lawyer who specializes in private equity and oil and gas. She is now the assistant general counsel at NGP Energy Capital Management and widely viewed as one of the brilliant young legal stars in the world of private equity and corporate law.
Despite being only 33 and having less than a year on the job, Sanders has already had a major impact at the Dallas-based private equity firm and has been deeply involved in several large and important transactions, including a $1.65 billion acquisition and an IPO for one of its portfolio companies.
“Christina has had a rookie year that rivals that of Michael Jordan,” says NGP General Counsel Jeff Zlotky. “She has played a critical role in a number of significant transactions involving our portfolio, including the billion-dollar-plus transaction recently announced by Vantage Energy.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce that Sanders is a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Rookie of the Year Award.
This is the first year that ACC-DFW and The Lawbook have recognized rising stars in corporate in-house legal departments. The finalists will be celebrated and the winner announced at the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards event on Thursday, Jan. 24, at the George W. Bush Institute.
“From the day Christina joined NGP, she gained immediate respect from our team and those in our portfolio companies,” Zlotky told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview. “Christina has an innate sense of client services and satisfaction. The fact that she is from a leading law family definitely shows.”
Law Runs in the Family
Born and raised in Dallas, Sanders is the daughter of Bruce Collins, who is a prominent commercial litigator and managing partner at Carrington Coleman. She also has uncles who practiced at Haynes and Boone and Locke Lord, and her grandfather was a senior partner at Thompson & Knight.
“I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember,” she says. “I saw how passionate my dad was about his career and about the law. I really never considered any other kind of career.”
Collins says he never pushed his daughter to be a lawyer, but he is proud she decided to do so.
“Christina was always curious – she loved reading and writing,” he says. “During a spring break in college, she actually got to watch us in action in the Enron case.”
Sanders received her bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Southern California and her doctor of jurisprudence at Texas Tech University School of Law, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2012. In law school, she decided that her legal career would diverge a bit from her father’s.
“I did a couple moot courts and mock trials as a first-year, and I realized that litigation was not for me,” she says.
Instead, Sanders joined the corporate transactional practice at Thompson & Knight, where she spent five and a half years representing businesses and private equity firms doing deals and creating funds.
Sanders’ lucky break came a few years ago when a senior associate handling private fund formation projects left TK to go in-house, which allowed her to move into that position.
“Christina was the gold standard against which all other associates were graded,” says Thompson & Knight partner Holt Foster. “She worked very hard and was always willing to put in as many hours as necessary to get the job done. And she did it with a great attitude.
“Christina thinks two or three steps ahead and could see issues or problems coming, and clients loved it,” Foster says.
While at TK, Sanders was the lead associate drafting five separate fund and general partnership agreements ranging from $500 million to $5.3 billion.
“It was an extraordinary experience getting to work with Holt and Anne Marie [Cowdrey] at Thompson & Knight,” she says. “They gave me the opportunity to interact with prospective investors, negotiating terms of side letters and partnership agreements.”
Going In-house at NGP
One of the key Thompson & Knight clients is NGP. Zlotky needed to fill an open position in his legal department, and Sanders was the first person he considered.
“I wasn’t looking to go in-house, because I really enjoyed the fund development work,” she says. “Working at a law firm requires you to be involved in several projects for different clients, but you don’t get to see the bigger picture. Here at NGP, I get to be involved in every step of the life cycle of a fund.”
Since last January, Sanders has been deeply involved in most of NGP’s biggest transactions in 2018, including:
• NGP-backed Vantage Energy Acquisition’s $1.65 billion purchase of oil and gas assets in Williston Basin in November;
• PemRock Royalty Trust’s IPO;
• A $50 million credit facility for one of NGP’s portfolio businesses;
• The formation of two joint venture portfolio companies;
• The formation of two NGP-based portfolio companies – one with a $225 million commitment by NGP and the second with a $150 million commitment; and
• The closing of a handful of multiple co-investment vehicles managed by NGP.
Sanders says once a new fund has been formed, they negotiate with limited partners.
“That is a 12- to 18- month process,” she says. “Once the fund closes, we put the money to work to back specific management teams, which come in and pitch their business. From there, we create new portfolio companies. Right now, we have about 60 active portfolio companies. Then, we work to exit the portfolio companies through IPOs, divestitures or other means.
“It is super fast-paced,” she says.
Zlotky says Sanders is clearly a rising star in the business law community.
“Christina could have easily stayed at Thompson & Knight and would have had tremendous success and been the firm’s managing partner,” he says.