Khurram's Quorum - 026: Heather Stevenson on moving from law to business and back, learning new skills quickly, and negotiating contracts for bananas

026: Heather Stevenson on moving from law to business and back, learning new skills quickly, and negotiating contracts for bananas

06/14/24 • 69 min

Heather Stevenson went from litigator at Sullivan & Cromwell to running a juice bar, then returned to law as a transactional lawyer at the Boston Globe where she rose to Deputy General Counsel, then became General Counsel at Red Cell Partners, an incubation firm. I've been influenced in more ways than one by Heather's adventurous career, and I admire her first-principles approach to thinking about what's important in career.

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

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

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undefined - 027: Samuel Levine on the prestige trap, changing the law while in law school, and why every lawyer should learn how the law works for poor people

027: Samuel Levine on the prestige trap, changing the law while in law school, and why every lawyer should learn how the law works for poor people

Listening to this episode, you can't miss Samuel Levine's passion for consumer protection. It would be a mistake to look at his remarkable ascent from Harvard Law School to become Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC as a strategic arc to power. Samuel's story illustrates why lawyers should get their hands dirty and find work you're passionate about.

I've largely advocated for a more strategic approach to career, and Samuel's approach is a nice counterbalance. I enjoyed this conversation, I hope you will to.