Where Are the Legal Leaders We Need? ft. Nicole Lester Arrindell

Being a great lawyer has less to do with knowing the law and A LOT more to do with listening, building trust, and managing people and figuring out how to move work forward without becoming the “department of no.” In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Nicole Lester Arrindell, Head of State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs and Associate General Counsel at Equitable, to talk about servant leadership, public service, career purpose and the real-world skills lawyers need but are not always taught. Nicole shares how her work across legal aid, government, in-house counsel, teaching, and bar leadership shaped her core belief: leadership is not a title; it is a daily practice.

Leadership in law is often treated like something that comes after the promotion, after the title or after someone hands you a team and assumes you magically know what to do with them.

Nicole Lester Arrindell sees it differently. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Nicole, Head of State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs and Associate General Counsel at Equitable, for a wide-ranging conversation on servant leadership, legal education, public service, in-house counsel, mentorship, and what it actually means to lead in the legal profession.

What You’ll Learn:

Why leadership is not about a title, but about how you show up in any role
How Nicole’s South Side Chicago upbringing shaped her commitment to service
Why the people closest to the issue often understand it better than anyone else
How in-house lawyers can become business partners instead of the “department of no”
Why “soft skills” should be treated as core legal skills
What law schools should teach about client relationships, team management, and communication
Why students need to practice presenting ideas, even if they never plan to litigate

This episode is a reminder that legal excellence is more about judgment, empathy, communication, influence and the ability to help people get where they are trying to go, than about sheer knowledge.

Highlights:

00:59 Welcome to Between the Briefs

01:36 Meeting Nicole Lester Arrindell

03:04 Nicole’s Career & The Through-Line of Service

04:45 Community Service on Chicago’s South Side

07:37 Teaching the Next Generation of Lawyers

10:19 Everyday People Can Be Everyday Leaders

12:12 The Kind of Leadership That’s Actually Valuable

12:36 Nicole’s Career GPS: Goals, Purpose and Skills

13:57 Why Self-Reflection Matters in Leadership Development

16:24 Lessons From Legal Aid and Chief of Staff Roles

16:54 Why the People Closest to the Issue Know It Best

18:45 Legal Leadership Means Figuring It Out Together

19:21 Nicole’s Role in State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs

21:48 Why “Soft Skills” Are Really Core Skills

24:29 Nicole’s Work as an Adjunct Professor

24:38 Bringing Practical Lawyering Into the Classroom

28:18 What Nicole Hopes Her Students Take With Them

30:42 Being a Partner to the Client, Not the Department of No

33:04 Leading the Metropolitan Black Bar Association

36:01 Nicole’s Journey With the MBBA

39:24 Protecting the Rule of Law

40:42 Leadership as Practice, Not Position

41:35 Nicole’s Hot Take: AI Fluency

42:32 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

“Everyday people can be everyday leaders.”
“You don’t have to have the big title or the fancy position in order to demonstrate leadership.”
“The people closest to the issue understood it better than I could.”
“We’re not the department of no. We’re the department of “let’s figure it out.”
“The fact that you were a great litigator does not now mean you can manage 20 of them.”