#96 She's Never Tasted Coffee But Energizes 400 Attorneys Across America

Nichole Velasquez has never tasted coffee, not since that childhood moment when her sister convinced her to try it and she spit it out all over the kitchen floor. Yet as Fellows Program Director at LCLD, she energizes hundreds of mid-career and senior attorneys through intensive professional development that focuses on something law schools never taught: emotional intelligence.

In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman explores how Nichole recently stepped into running a program that brings 400 high-performing attorneys together for three-day sessions across the country. What she's learned surprises most people: firms don't send their top talent primarily for substantive legal training. They send them for the relationships that form through interactive, table-based learning experiences.

Nichole's newest skill is a two-day certification in the EQ-i 2.0 assessment, allowing her to administer emotional intelligence evaluations and coach attorneys on their results. She connects every leadership topic—active listening, difficult conversations, managing up—back to emotional intelligence, showing how this trainable skill underpins everything else. Her managing partner mentor exemplifies this perfectly: despite running an entire firm, he makes every conversation feel like you're the only person who matters in that moment.

The conversation turns personal when Nichole shares her experience as a Mexican American growing up in Maryland, where teachers consistently mispronounced her phonetic last name. When she shares this story with audiences, hands go up across the room—that first-day-of-school identity moment resonates deeply. Drawing on Mel Robbins' "Let Them Theory," Nichole teaches a framework for letting others' actions be theirs while controlling your own response. It's about connection over control, presence over perfection.