After 13 years of running his law practice, Jay Shepherd is taking his career in another direction.

You will find the rules for success in his blog post Small Firms, Big Lawyers: Reflections on Thirteen Years to be very valuable. He has 13 rules for his thirteen years. The first 12 rules are great and the last one humorous. I am presumptuous enough to clarify his rule #8 Pay yourself first. I know for certain he doesn't mean pay yourself before you pay your staff. As an employer, paying your staff on time is a business and ethical duty. They have to be paid on payday. With automatic debits, even a day late could be a disaster. But I do agree with the point Jay was making. A law practice can appear very viable when it is not if you do not include paying the lawyer. I assume any business can look great if you do not pay the workers.

But Jay has great rules that reflect the reality of today's environment. That reality is very different today than when many of us first started practicing law. I wish every lawyer starting a law practice could read them. In fact, every lawyer in private practice should.