Volume 6: Passionate

Tell us about yourself and your biggest focus right now 

I’m Purvi Sanghvi, Chief Revenue Officer at King & Spalding. The firm had tremendous momentum long before I arrived, and my role is to help build on that foundation with greater discipline, clarity, and intentionality. At its core, that means creating a sustainable growth model - one that identifies opportunities, closes gaps, and gives the firm a stronger platform for long-term success.

Year-over-year growth cannot be driven by a short-term mindset alone. That approach is too narrow. The more important question is how we create the underlying infrastructure that allows growth to compound over time. In certain practices, the work naturally extends well beyond a single year, so it can be misleading to view success only through the lens of current-year targets.

My focus is on the long view: building the foundation required to execute a thoughtful four- or five-year strategy. We want to grow, but we also want to deliver greater value to our clients as we do it. That requires a deep understanding of the engine that drives revenue; not simply a view of what we hope to achieve in a given year.

What is the one behavior or mindset you believe most determines long-term success in a law firm? 

Discipline and structure. Those two things shape how an organization operates, clarify what is expected of people, and create a more thoughtful framework for decision-making.

Whether the issue is an existing client relationship, a new client opportunity, or a lateral candidate, the quality of the decision is directly tied to having the right people engaged in the conversation at the right time.

How do you encourage your team to think more boldly? 

When I say I expect us to be a world-class team, I do not mean working fifteen-hour days or defining commitment by exhaustion. I mean recognizing that everyone here brings real expertise, and then asking how we align that expertise, collaborate more deliberately, and work in concert toward the same goals.

Encouraging bold thinking in a firm with a strong culture starts with trust. People need to know that I understand what they have built and why current processes exist before I suggest changing them. When you begin from a place of respect and collaboration, you create an environment where people are more willing to test new ideas because they know their judgment and history are being valued.

What is the biggest shift law firms need to make in the next three years? 

Law firms need more consistent long-term strategies. That does not have to mean a twenty-year plan; a disciplined five-year view can be powerful. The key is to have a clear point of view about where the firm is going and to remain aware of the broader market environment. Once that vision is established, decisions about structure, scale, practice focus, talent, and investment become more coherent.

At a more focused level, I also believe firms should be thinking more intentionally about talent retention beyond the lawyer population. We often have sophisticated strategies for developing and supporting legal talent, but the business services side deserves the same level of attention.

There is extraordinary talent in those functions as well.

When someone begins at a junior or coordinator level, we should be asking what pathways we can create to help that person grow, move laterally when appropriate, and apply their strengths in ways that benefit both the individual and the firm. That person may become a manager in any number of functions and play a meaningful role in moving the organization forward.

We do not see enough of that yet, in part because many firms remain too functionally siloed on the business services side.

How are you using data and AI to reshape how your people work? 

I am always looking at how technology can create meaningful efficiency. At the end of the day, part of my role is to help the firm optimize how quickly we are paid and how effectively we realize revenue. Not every efficiency will come from AI, but the conversation around AI is prompting people to examine processes with fresh eyes. That alone has become a useful catalyst for continuous improvement.

With data, the industry is still on a learning curve. Law firms have had access to significant data for a long time, but we have not always spent enough time defining the questions we are trying to answer or the decisions we want that data to inform. Historically, that was understandable; the priority was ensuring the core business continued to operate effectively.

The next step is to analyze each department more deliberately, understand the data available to it, and develop a clear process for turning information into actionable intelligence. That is how data moves from being a “nice-to-have” to becoming a strategic necessity.

What's one piece of advice for the next generation of legal leaders? 

Leadership is about bringing people together to solve important problems. To do that well, you need the patience to listen, the empathy to understand, and the judgment to ask the right questions.

You also have to understand which parts of the culture are sacred - what needs to be honored and protected, even as change is introduced. The goal is to identify the pain point or frustration you are trying to solve and improve the system without implying that everything that came before was broken.

No technology will replace the empathetic perspective required to lead change. We remain in a relationship business: lawyers help clients solve problems, and firms are built on trust. As long as that remains true, effective leadership will require a human understanding of what needs to be solved and why.