Anjelica Garcia joined Steno in April from Red Bull and here she shares with Legal IT Insider her immediate thoughts and reflections on joining the legal technology sector; the culture and philosophies she brings with her; and what the biggest challenges are; her biggest achievement to date; and the one piece of advice she wish she had received.
Anjelica welcome to legal, how would you describe your new role in Steno’s leadership team?
I’ve recently stepped into the role of chief people officer at Steno. We provide tech-enabled court reporting and litigation support services, but at our core, we’re a people-driven business. I’m overseeing our talent strategy and helping shape our culture. I want to ensure that the same reliability and care we provide to our legal clients are baked into the way we treat our own team as we scale up.
What made you switch from Red Bull and the sports and entertainment world to legal technology?
On the surface, moving from Red Bull to legal technology looks like a significant shift. For me, the throughline is clear: we are building premium brands in dynamic industries. Over the past decade, sports and media have been transformed, especially in content creation, distribution, and consumption. Organisations had to rapidly adapt to change while upholding a strong identity and high standards. The true leaders in this new landscape didn’t just keep up, they set the benchmark for excellence.
Similarly, legal technology is experiencing its own transformation. There are clear changes in how legal work is getting done, alongside rising expectations around speed and quality.
What philosophies around culture and building winning teams will you bring with you?
Culture is built on the experiences people have every day at work. It is reflected in the behaviours that are rewarded, the implicit norms, and where attention is placed. The most effective organisations create environments where people find meaning in their work and feel a sense of belonging within their teams. They also foster ownership and clear pathways to building excellence in one’s craft and career.
That can happen organically in smaller environments. However, as organisations grow, it becomes more difficult. At that stage, it requires deliberate design, clarity in goals, strong manager capability, consistent feedback loops, and systems that reinforce both performance and development.
Truly high-performing teams are not just effective, they are aligned and resilient. My goal is to build an environment where both individuals and teams achieve this consistently.
Is there any crossover in terms of skills for a chief people officer in both sectors?
The core of the chief people officer role is consistent regardless of industry. It’s about building the approach, practices, and systems that allow a company to translate strategy into execution through its people. That includes organisational design, leadership development, performance management, and ensuring that incentives and ways of working are aligned with business priorities. Whether the context is consumer products, media, or legal technology, those fundamentals don’t change.
What does change is the operating environment – pace, regulatory considerations, and talent markets. The underlying discipline remains the same: understanding what the business needs, building the right structure and leadership capability, and evolving both as the company grows.
What are the biggest challenges to making the switch into the legal world?
I would say the main challenge (and my current priority) is getting a deep understanding of the industry – its structure, stakeholders, and the nuances that shape how work gets done. Legal services have their own rhythms, regulatory considerations, and long-standing ways of operating that are distinct from other sectors.
But I see that as a learning curve rather than a barrier. In fact, the advantage of coming from outside the industry is the ability to see patterns more objectively and to consider how principles around effective teams and high-performing organisations might apply in this context.
My focus so far has been on listening and learning. That is where I would start in any new role. I am spending time with people across the legal ecosystem to better understand how the work really happens, Steno’s strengths as an employer and partner, and where our opportunities lie.
How did your career to date prepare you for your current role?
My career has largely been shaped in high-growth environments where organisations needed to evolve to keep pace with the industry and their ambitions. Early on, I focused on building the foundational systems – talent management, analytics, and organizational design – that help to create clarity and consistency as a company scales.
As my career progressed, I applied those same principles in even more complex environments, supporting significant expansion across multiple lines of business and operating models.
Throughout my experience, linking performance and people through practical systems and leadership is a constant theme. That will remain at the heart of our talent and culture strategy at Steno.
What has been your biggest achievement in your career so far?
I tend not to think about any of my achievements as singular, visible milestones. A significant portion of our lives is spent at work, and what I’ve valued most in my career is the role I’ve been able to play in shaping how people feel during that time.
The impact often shows up in tangible, but ‘small’ ways – helping a leader become more effective, building systems that improve how teams operate, expanding access to benefits that support employees and their families, or creating opportunities for individuals to grow into roles they might not have otherwise had access to.
These everyday moments, though rarely visible, build strong organisations and help to move a business forward. Their lasting impact on individuals and families is what I find truly meaningful and is my greatest achievement.
Looking back, what piece of advice do you wish you had received earlier in your career?
I’m a big believer in intentionally building a personal advisory board, and I’d encourage everyone to do it earlier in their careers. It doesn’t need to be a formal structure, but a group of people you trust to help you navigate different aspects of your life and career as you move through it.
The pace of change in the working world is significant, and when you layer in different stages of life and career, it becomes difficult for any one person, whether a manager or a mentor, to be the right sounding board for everything.
Having a small group of trusted voices who understand your context and can offer a clear, direct perspective is incredibly valuable. It improves decision-making over time and gives you a level of perspective hard to build on your own.
Tell us something people don’t already know about Steno’s team?
We have dozens of lawyers across the company, in places you wouldn’t expect, like sales and marketing. Even our new SVP and head of sales, Jeff Herscott, who joined at the same time as me, comes from a BigLaw background. I always joke that we have enough legal talent here that we could go off and start our own firm.
Our thanks to Anjelica for sharing her thoughts and experiences, if you would like to be our next Career Insights guest, message [email protected]
