Estee A. Sanchez

Shareholder

Emerging Energy & Infrastructure, Mineral Title Examination & Due Diligence, Transactional & Corporate

estee a sanchez

Estee Sanchez leads Beatty & Wozniak’s Mineral Title Examination & Due Diligence group. With over two decades of focus on energy law and its intricacies, Estee Sanchez provides trusted guidance to energy companies. Licensed to practice in five states, she has a comprehensive understanding of the legal, regulatory, and commercial dynamics shaping energy development across the Rocky Mountain region and beyond.

Estee regularly serves as outside general counsel to exploration and production companies, offering practical, day-to-day guidance on mineral title issues, due diligence, project structuring, and risk mitigation. Her practice includes the preparation of complex acquisition, drilling, and division order title opinions on fee, state, and federal lands. She brings clarity to transactions involving layered surface and mineral rights, overlapping jurisdictions, and complex ownership histories.

In addition to her client work, Estee is a leading scholar-author in the natural resources field. She authors the annual chapter on federal royalties in Law of Federal Oil and Gas Leases and serves on the faculty of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law’s biennial short course on Federal Oil & Gas Leasing, Development, and Operations. She also chairs the Legal & Legislative Committee for the Denver Association of Professional Landmen and serves as a regular contributor to its monthly legal column.

Education

University of Denver College of Law, Denver, Colorado

  • J.D. – 2000

University of Denver, Denver, Colorado

  • B.A. – 1994
  • Honors: With High Honors

Bar Admissions

  • Colorado, 2001
  • Wyoming, 2002
  • Kansas, 2006
  • North Dakota, 2011
  • Nebraska, 2011

Professional Associations

  • The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, Member
  • Denver Association of Professional Landmen, Member
  • Denver Association of Professional Landmen, Legal & Legislative Committee Chair
  • Western Energy Alliance, Member
  • Denver Association of Oil and Gas Title Lawyers, Member
  • Wyoming Bar Association, Member
  • Colorado Bar Association, Member

Pro Bono Activities

  • The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law

Published Works

  • Royalties, Law of Federal Oil and Gas Leases, Rocky Mineral Law Foundation, Chapter 13, 2002 – Present
  • North Dakota Operators Can Suspend Royalty Payments Based on the Existence of a Title Dispute, a Successful Dispute is Not Required, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol 39, Issue 7, 2022
  • Federal Lease Suspensions, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 38, Issue 9, 2021
  • Dormant Mineral and Mineral Lapse Statutes, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol.37, Issue 9, 2020
  • Tax Sales and Tax Titles in Colorado, Vol. 37, Issue 2, 2019
  • Conflict Between Federal Oil and Gas Leases and Federal Coal Development in Wyoming, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 35, Issue 9, 2018
  • Scope and Authority of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: Martinez v. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 35, Issue 1, Summer, 2017
  • Tax Deed Validity and Redemption by One Tenant in Common, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 34, Issue 3, 2016
  • Oil and Gas Company Remains Liable for Assigned Wells in Wyoming, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 34, Issue 3, 2016
  • Breach of Fiduciary Duty While Providing Professional Landman Services, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 33, Issue 5, 2015
  • Oil and Gas Law, Annual Survey of Colorado Law, Colorado Bar Association, 2005 – 2017
  • Business Entities in Oil and Gas Title Chains, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 32, Issue 7, 2015
  • Extended Oil and Gas Leases: And So Long Thereafter… Happily Ever After?, Advanced Mineral Title Examination: Oil, Gas, and Mining, Paper No. 4 (Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn.), 2014
  • Tax Sales and Tax Titles in Colorado, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 24, Issue 5, 2006
  • Ownership of Minerals Underlying Rights-of-Way, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol 24, Issue 6, 2006
  • Conveyances with Trusts in the Chain of Title, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 24, Issue 4, 2005
  • Wyoming’s New Act for Entry to Conduct Oil and Gas Operations, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 23, Issue 8, 2005
  • Torrens Title In Colorado, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 33, Issue 6, 2005
  • Cabot Decision Interprets Wyoming Royalty Payment Act as to Upstream Transportation Costs, DAPL Rocky Mt. Landman, Vol. 22, Issue 9, 2004

Classes & Seminars

  • Federal Oil & Gas Leasing, Development, and Operations – Lessee and Transferee Qualifications, Assignments, and Transfers of Interest, The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law Short Course (October 2023, October 2025)
  • Oil and Gas Update 2017, Live Program and Webcast; Colorado Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Program, February 2017
  • Extended Oil and Gas Leases: And So Long Thereafter… Happily Ever After?, The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law Special Institute on Advanced Mineral Title Examination – Oil, Gas and Mining, January 2014