Attorney, Artist And Leader Wilkinson-Pickett Lives A Multifaceted Life
Like a brilliant gem, Nickeyea (Nicky) Wilkinson-Pickett reflects a vibrant light in her practice of the law, work as an artist, and passion for leadership.
Wilkinson-Pickett achieved several goals in 2023: she became a fellow with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, earned her health coach certification, and wrote a book. She was highlighted as a featured artist in S3T newsletter for her graphic design work. The corporate counsel attorney serves as senior counsel for GSK, where she supports AIR, the anti-infective and respiratory portfolio.
Why is it important for her to hone her creative pursuits along with her other abilities?
For Wilkinson-Pickett, the answer is simple. Engaging in life-giving activities fills her with energy, a fire igniting and illuminating her drive to learn, grow and create. The more she paints, draws, and makes art, the more she feels alive.
She has seen this to be true in her life.
“We are human, and humans are dynamic. We’re not just one way. We’re multifaceted. And if you can tap into all the things that make you uniquely you, I think you’ll be happier. I think people around you will start to notice, and they’ll be happier with you.”
As Wilkinson-Pickett looks back on the past year, she remarks on some of the helpful habits she maintains in her daily life.
If each one of her habits were a tile in a mosaic, the overall picture would reflect joy.
Nicky authored a book in 2023 titled “Womanhood: A Devotional, Prayer, & Activity Journal.”
One of those habits is practicing her art. On many days, she wakes up early to spend time drawing on an iPad. She opens the app Procreate to start a new masterpiece. That first hour of the day flies by as she glides the pen across the canvas, turning a blank screen into a work of art.
But working on her art was not always something she incorporated into her daily rhythms. Drawing was a passion during her early years, yet after college, she stopped practicing. She describes the pivotal moment when she realized that without it, something was missing.
She vividly remembers the day: a friend and fellow attorney sent her a video, an animated short film called “Alike.”
Wilkinson-Pickett describes what she saw in the video. The story begins with a father and a son. The father is blue, and all the town and adults in the town are grey, but the son appears a different color. He is orange. When the father works, he begins to turn grey, but when he embraces his son at the end of the day, he turns back to blue.
Each day, when the father and son walk to school, they pass by a man playing the violin – a man who is orange-pink and who is standing under a tree with orange leaves. The son enjoys stopping to hear the music. As the son begins to do more in the story, he begins to carry more. At the beginning of the video, when he is in school, he draws in color, but as the video goes on, he only writes using black and white ink. As he carries a backpack of heavy books, he begins to drag himself and move with less energy, and to appear less orange.
Wilkinson-Pickett narrates the end of the tale.
“One day, the father realizes that his son is losing his color, and so he lets him stop where the violin player usually is. Although the violin player is not there that day, his father stands where the violin player typically stands and begins to move as if he is playing the violin. Then, his son’s color starts to come back. And before you know it, the father’s color starts to come back, and they find joy in that.
“When I watched this video, I thought, this depiction is exactly what I was experiencing,” says Wilkinson-Pickett. “Some of my color is fading. What can I do?”
“And that’s when I just started picking up the paintbrush again. At first, I was just painting abstract art paint on canvas) pieces. And then, I stumbled upon digital art and fell in love with it. I can create whatever I like now, and I’ll do just that. And whenever I feel like I’m getting too far away from art, I just go back to it.”
A photo of Nicky’s digital art, titled “Color in my hand.” The artwork represents Nicky finding her “color” as inspired by the animated short film “Alike.”
On December 30, 2021, she made a commitment to herself: she would draw every day.
“Even if it was just a dot,” she says.
“Whenever I was reminded of that commitment, I just grabbed my iPad, and said, it’s time to scribble. It’s time to do something to get that muscle going because honestly, I don’t want to go back and start to lose my color.”
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As she was beginning to reincorporate art into her life, Wilkinson-Pickett says a particular exercise helped her to see how she might connect her natural talents with her education, training and skillset.
She made a skills-matching list.
“I sat down and I made a list. On one side, I wrote down all the things I was good at, the things that were innate. I went all the way back to childhood. One thing on the list was art and creativity. On the other side were some of the skills I got through training, education, and reading. Then, I started to skills match. And what I realized was that my creativity fueled some of the things that I was drawn to in terms of skills and education.”
Taking ahold of the pencil, paintbrush and Apple pencil was a step forward, one that led her to take new strides in other areas of her life.
One of those areas was her identity as a leader.
Wilkinson-Pickett became interested in exploring and advocating for diversity and leadership in the legal field. And, in 2023, she was nominated for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellows program.
Becoming a fellow was a highlight of last year as it empowered her to gain new insight into her identity as a leader. The program brings together diverse, high-potential, mid-career attorneys from across the United States and prepares them for leadership roles by providing them with opportunities for personal and professional development, trainings and relationship-building resources. To be eligible for the program, a fellow must be a diverse attorney at an LCLD member organization and be nominated for the program.
Nicky, right, and fellow Leadership Council on Legal Diversity participant Alyssa Frederick, left, at the March 2023 LCLD spring meeting, held in San Diego.
Wilkinson-Pickett became a fellow for three reasons: to amplify her leadership abilities, to meet other colleagues around the United States, and to focus on the importance of diversity in the legal profession.
“Being a fellow, now an alumnus, is a phenomenal experience. It’s equally phenomenal to have my organization’s support of my participation in the program. Though my fellowship was for a year, LCLD is a lifelong program because you make friends with people whom you probably wouldn’t have had exposure to. I really am thankful for that experience because now I have friends all over.
“Diversity is important for so many reasons and such importance is supported by data. There are a plethora of studies that show a positive impact on a business when there are diverse candidates in leadership. The program not only highlights this fact, but it helped me to sharpen the skills I have so that if an opportunity for leadership does present itself, I’m ready for that opportunity.”
What are some of the ways the program trains future leaders?
Wilkinson-Pickett attended two meetings, one held in San Diego, and another in Washington, D.C. The council held its annual meeting in San Diego, where Wilkinson-Pickett heard from leaders on topics relating to diversity in the legal profession, met with other attorneys and discussed these topics in different groups.
Her time as a fellow has been rewarding and enlightening.
“I had colleagues from all over the United States and from various practice areas, not just in-house, attorneys who are mid-to-senior level, and those who are ready for executive leadership. The training and the exchange of information has been richly rewarding. The networking has been phenomenal. We have accountability teams, and I was able to participate and do some things within the team, such as SMART goals setting and partner check-ins.
“I had such a good experience that I volunteered to be a part of the planning team for the annual alumni leadership symposium. I’m looking forward to a very busy 2024, but a very good year. The LCLD is one of those organizations that really invests in the diversity of the legal practice. To be a part of that has been really great.”
A photograph of San Diego during Wilkinson-Pickett’s visit to the city in 2023.
The fellowship program is only one of the ways she has demonstrated her leadership abilities. Since joining the NCBA in 2016, Wilkinson-Pickett has served in several roles. She has served on the council for the Privacy & Data Security Section and Corporate Counsel Section. In the 2021-2022 bar year, she co-led the Corporate Counsel Section’s Knowledge and Resource Committee with Sheila Spence. From 2019-2020, she served as the Privacy & Data Security Section communications chair and co-authored “Why VPNs and Encryption Services Are Our Digital Masks and Gloves,” which received an honorable mention in the 20 Most Widely Read Posts on the NCBarBlog in 2020. Now, she serves as the treasurer and secretary of the Corporate Counsel Section.
She says that her NCBA membership has encouraged her to exercise her leadership capabilities within and outside her practice of the law.
“One of the areas I would say I am super committed to is being an NCBA member because I see the value in it. I see the value in what the Bar Association has been doing over the years, especially for new attorneys: the CLEs, the trainings, the conversations. I have made a lot of good friends,” says Wilkinson-Pickett.
“In fact, one of my mentors is a member of the NCBA, and I met her through the NCBA, Clara Cottrell.”
Wilkinson-Pickett has reflected a multifaceted array of talents as an artist and a leader, and she has also demonstrated these strengths in her career, which has spanned both the health care and pharmaceutical industries. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., she earned her undergraduate degree from Hampton University and her J.D./MBA from North Carolina Central University School of Law and School of Business.
This year, Wilkinson-Pickett celebrated a decade as North Carolina attorney, an achievement marked by her provision of business and legal advice and strategy to organizations in the health care and life sciences industries, including Cenduit and Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina.
In 2021, she joined GSK as senior counsel to the Anti-infective and Respiratory (AIR) business unit (BU).
“Although the area of law is different, there are still crossovers on the business side. I have a little bit more of an understanding when it comes to how the health care ecosystem works, because now I’ve been in pharma, I’ve done health insurance, I’ve worked at a CRO, which is a contract research organization. I’m working my way around the health care ecosystem.”
As part of her role at GSK, she supports the sales and marketing team with the promotional review of GSK’s products in its AIR BU.
“On some days, there are exciting moments. On other days, there are moments where I’m like, what is happening here? It’s like discovery and exploration all wrapped up in one.
“I review various forms of promotional assets, including TV commercials, to ensure that our promotional content is aligned to regulatory guidance and applicable laws. The pharmaceutical industry is a heavily regulated industry. I get to stretch my legal muscles. I also get to dig into brand and enterprise strategy, which gives me a ‘GC-like’ view of the products I support. Every day, there is something new to learn, and it’s been very rewarding.”
She says she has grown tremendously over the past two years at GSK.
“I have really great colleagues,” says Wilkinson-Pickett.
“My boss is amazing. Her legal mind is beyond something that I’ve experienced. She is absolutely wonderful. She’s a mentor, coach, leader, all of that, and then some. I really appreciate being under her tutelage and under her leadership. It’s made two years go very fast, and I’ve learned a lot.”
Wilkinson-Pickett’s achievements are the culmination of what she has been working towards over the past few years, ever since a turning point in 2019 caused her to evaluate her life from a new perspective. Leading up to that moment, she celebrated several life events and was looking forward to new beginnings.
She recalls the joy she felt in this time – joy followed by the unexpected: a health scare.
“It really pumped the brakes on some of my pursuits. Then, in other areas, it really propelled me, like in health and wellness.”
She began to think about her overall well-being, and in doing so, began to reengage with some of the habits she had before 2019. One of them was being creative; another one was exercising. But she didn’t stop there. During her own health journey, she discovered she wanted to help others in similar situations.
“I used to work out often: lifting heavy weights, and all of that. And it stopped,” she says.
“I was like, how did I get here? Since I was already an encourager, and being an attorney, I said, I have to understand how to not be an expert, but how to be a coach, where I am allowing the person to direct their path and solution versus me telling them what to do. And I said, if I learn how to do both, wow. Imagine what I can do. That really made me go forward in becoming a certified health and well-being coach.”
Towards the end of 2021, she began taking classes to become certified as a health coach, and last year, she completed the certification. As a result of the process, she became even more committed to her goal of helping others.
“I finished the health and well-being coach certificate program (Wellcoaches), because there is something special about helping people achieve their goals, especially women,” she shares.
“We [women] try to be superheroes, and oftentimes, we kind of are. And when trying to balance it all, the first thing that goes is our health. We will put our health on the back burner and let everything else take priority. I said I would never be that person until I became that person.”
One of Wilkinson-Pickett’s pieces, an acrylic painting with mixed textures on canvas.
Impacting others as an artist, leader, attorney, and coach, Wilkinson-Pickett lives out the multifaceted life she has described. Outside these pursuits, there is one more area she has tried her hand in: writing.
In 2023, she authored a devotional prayer and activity journal for women called “Womanhood.” Her artwork adorns the cover.
“My faith is deeply important to me. I’m deeply rooted in it, and I think it has gotten me to the point to where I am now, in my career,” says Wilkinson-Pickett.
“I’m in a place where it shows up in my everyday life. The reason why I can calmly approach situations and the fires that may happen at work is because of my faith. Some people practice meditation, or they go for a run. I pray. I write in my journal, and that has allowed me to be flexible and approach law with a different lens. I have brought my faith and art to the forefront, and I love it.”
And last year, she was licensed as a minister. All these feats have only inspired her to keep envisioning what is next.
She already has big goals for 2024.
“This year, I plan on doing even more because I’m just that committed. Every year, I have a theme. My theme this year is boldness, so I’m focused on getting my book out there and helping women,” she says.
“I want to show others that there’s someone who’s thinking about them. I don’t want anyone to think there’s not someone out there who cares about them, someone who’s advocating for them. There’s someone who’s rooting for you. There is someone who wants to see you do well.”
For Wilkinson-Pickett, a vibrant life involves conquering new heights as an attorney, an artist, a leader and a writer. As she continues to sketch out and live out her dreams, she shows how helping others makes for a strong foundation.
By grounding yourself in the things that lift you up, you can radiate all that is possible.
And by tapping into your strengths, you can let your light shine.
Jessica Junqueira is communications manager for the North Carolina Bar Association.