
049 Louis Tompros: creating adjacent bets
From Khurram's Quorum by Khurram Naik
March 17, 2026 · 1h 42m
About this episode
In this episode, Louis Tompros discusses how to create career opportunities through strategic risks and pro bono work.
Judge Richard Linn first pointed me to Louis Tompros years ago, when he told me my entrepreneurial approach to breaking into patent litigation reminded him of one of his former clerks. The story he shared stayed with me: Louis created his own chance to argue at the Federal Circuit by stepping into a pro bono inventor appeal. In this episode, we explore how Louis has built durable edge through high-agency adjacent bets: Agency create your own reps instead of waiting for permission take manageable risks to accelerate learning use pro bono work, teaching, and relationship-building to create career-accelerating opportunities Adjacency bounded adjacent bets strengthen the core rather than distract from it trial and appellate work sharpen each other patent, copyright, and trademark work inform each other plaintiff and defense work reveal the other side’s blind spots Teaching teaching forces you back to first principles it makes you more creative as a practitioner in a mistrust-heavy courtroom, the best advocates help the audience feel capable of deciding Client perspective the client is the fourth audience you can win the case and still miss what matters most to the client Gift-giving…
People in this episode
Host: Khurram Naik
Guest: Louis Tompros
Topics covered
- patent litigation
- entrepreneurship
- pro bono work
- career development
- adjacent bets
Keywords
- patent litigation
- entrepreneurship
- adjacent bets
- pro bono
- career opportunities
More episodes of Khurram's Quorum
- 053 Rohit Nath: how curiosity leads to the frontier · June 1, 2026 · 1h 33m
- 052 Tim Chen Saulsbury: doing the up-front work · May 13, 2026 · 1h 30m
- 051 Alamdar Hamdani: seeing around the corner in enforcement · April 15, 2026 · 1h 38m
- 050 Shashi Kewalramani: compounding skills across a nonlinear career · April 8, 2026 · 1h 41m
- 048 Neel Chatterjee: testing assumptions · March 11, 2026 · 1h 46m
- 047 Tim Yoo: how to study elite performers to find an edge · February 26, 2026 · 1h 23m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Khurram's Quorum podcast page.