Here’s my newest issue of International Review – an issue that I hope contains a balanced blend of thoughtful insight and practical contributions on law firm strategy and leadership.

I believe that my colleague Ed Reeser and I were amongst the very first to start cautioning firms about the overuse of lateral hiring, efficiency - at producing commodity work, and excessive compensation spreads.  These articles have been intended to warn good firms among the AmLaw 100, 200 and below of the dangers that may lie ahead if they pursue some of these same strategies and we are gratified by the supportive responses we’ve received from many firm leaders.  In this issue we continue on that same theme with two articles, Efficiency Is Not The Competitive Advantage and Are You Developing A Star Culture?  Our piece on Star Cultures received a lot of attention throughout July and August in Texas Lawyer, the ABA, The Legal Intelligencer, Law Technology News, and American Lawyer – where it ranked among the top five “most viewed stories” on multiple web sites.

In our First 100 Days program (see: first100daysmasterclass.com) we introduce new firm leaders to the same personality assessment taken by Fortune 500 CEOs and designed to identify their 'Dark Side' - a personalized assessment of those strengths you possess that, when under extreme pressure or stress, can turn into vulnerabilities.  I am delighted to include an article, Exploring The Dark Side: When Firm Leaders Overuse Their Strenghts that emanates from research conducted over the past five years.

Finally, Competitive Plagiarism warns us of what can happen if we consciously or inadvertently replicate the strategies that others may be pursuing; The Hurdles To Initiating Change offers a view on what might be holding back some firms from being more innovative; and Conducting Client Interviews draws upon the wisdom of some insightful clients as to their expectations when law firms come looking for feedback.

As always, I sincerely hope that you find some practical ideas, tips and techniques here that you can put to use immediately.  Please send me your observations, critiques, comments and suggestions with respect to any of these articles.

Click on the Cover to download your e-magazine copy.