Alston & Bird’s Top Echelon program was cited by Dallas Business News in an article that discussed the concept of authenticity, and its relationship—whether tenuous or strong—to today’s business climate. Top Echelon is a firm-wide performance excellence initiative begun in 1998, intended to enhance the firm’s culture and generate discussion amongst its members. In the article, the program, and more specifically, its TE Times newsletter that is shared across offices each day, was lauded as both an “invaluable tool that transforms ideas” and “brilliant.” Linda Newman, director of employee development for the firm, was quoted in the piece: “You must take the mission statement off the wall and put it in the hearts and minds of people every day.”