025: Kalpana Srinivasan on hip-hop dancing, making career gut decisions, and business development strategy Khurram's Quorum

Kalpana is known as one of the top trial lawyers in the country. She’s also co-chair of one of the leading trial firms in the country, Susman Godfrey. That’s a rare combination. I took this opportunity to explore themes in Kalpana’s career and professional decisions, there’s a ton of great principles covered in this conversation.  In this episode, we talk hip-hop dancing, the role of gut decisions in career, how she approaches business development, and more. 

(00:00) - why Kalpana practices hip hop dancing

(10:27) - the role gut decisions have played in her career

(15:27) - how to benefit from gut decisions

(18:57) - how should lawyers think about joining a growing office

(26:47) - what Kalpana is willing to sacrifice for success

(31:27) - how Kalpana allocates her time and effort to new cases

(36:17) - how the firm gets new ideas

(45:07) - a firm Kalpana admires

(51:57) - how a trial practice helps with running a firm and vice versa

(01:00:47) - how Kalpana balances the history of the firm and its future

(01:04:47) - the most impactful tip she picked up in her training

(01:12:07) - how Kalpana litigates differently from Steve Susman

(01:13:47) - Kalpana’s favorite phase of litigation

(01:22:27) - my take on Kalpana’s superpower

(01:26:17) - how Kalpana approaches business development

(01:36:37) - “show, don’t tell”

(01:40:27) - what Kalpana is most excited about in her career

(01:45:37) - why she believes in doing both plaintiff and defense work

(01:50:47) - Kalpana’s advice for lawyers