{"id":30614,"date":"2023-11-30T17:08:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=30614"},"modified":"2023-11-30T17:08:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:08:13","slug":"whats-luck-got-to-do-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2023\/11\/whats-luck-got-to-do-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Luck Got to Do with It?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s December 2012. I\u2019m a 2L. I\u2019m on my way to take my Federal Jurisdiction exam and meet what I think to be my fate, when I run into a well-intentioned faculty member. He asks me where I\u2019m heading. \u201cTo my Fed. Jur. exam,\u201d I manage to get out. His response? \u201cYikes. Tough class. Well\u00a0. . . good luck!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s an inauspicious way to kick off an exam, I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward two summers: I had graduated from law school, and my entire life had become about (1) studying for the bar exam, (2) not overdrawing my checking account, and (3) Chipotle burritos. Left and right, people were wishing me good luck on the bar. Every time they did so, the pressure mounted, as did my conviction that my professional future rode entirely on either luck or some God-given ability\u2014neither of which I felt particularly flush with at the time. From these experiences, I began to think \u201cgood luck\u201d\u2014even when offered with utmost sincerity\u2014might not the best way to send someone into a high-pressure moment.[i]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we all do it. We say \u201cgood luck\u201d to friends before they start a trial or to students before they take an exam because we wish them well. Behind the two simple words, though, seems the implication that we are mere pawns, our fate left to the caprice of the gods. Luck\u2019s sister concepts are, after all, fortune and chance.[ii]<\/a> Expounding on the etymology of luck, University of Cambridge Professor Robert S. C. Gordon has written that the word\u2019s etymological roots imply that \u201c[l]uck, good luck at least, brings happiness\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0, and this much seems uncontroversial. But conversely, there is already a more sombre\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. implicitly secular philosophy embedded in this lexical chain\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0: happiness is a matter of pure luck, and the path from one to the other is steeped in doubt.\u201d[iii]<\/a> In other words, the notion of good luck\u2014or the wish of it\u2014might just imply that our happiness, our success is out of our hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019re being honest, this thought might not be so out of step with how many a law student feels going into a final exam. After all, this pretty well encapsulates how I felt walking into my Federal Jurisdiction exam\u2014nervous that everyone in the class was smarter than yours truly, and convinced that if I happened to do well, it would be only out of sheer luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this, of course, goes against so much of what we try to teach our students about law school. We tell them hard work is rewarded with knowledge. Accomplishments flow therefrom. Luck or chance or cosmic design is a part of this (and every) equation, but hard work, strategy, practice\u2014these are the key ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those key ingredients also happen to be the things we can control. Plenty of research on self-determination theory in general and lawyer happiness in particular has teased out the connection between the principles of \u201cautonomy, relatedness, and competence\u201d with individual and lawyer well-being.[iv]<\/a> Viewed in this framework, wishing someone good luck seems, at best, inapt when talking about an examination for which one has prepared for weeks, if not months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where to if we abandon Lady Luck? In recent years, I\u2019ve found myself defaulting to one of the following: \u201cYou got this,\u201d \u201cyou\u2019ve prepared for this,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ll see you on the other side.\u201d Really, I\u2019m just trying to let students know that we see how hard they\u2019ve worked, they deserve to feel confident (or at least to fake it) walking into an exam, and that they will get through this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come to think of it, even \u201cbreak a leg\u201d intuitively feels better than \u201cgood luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hmmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe, after all of this, could it be that I\u2019m just superstitious?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> A cursory Google search has since confirmed that I am not alone in this conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> See <\/em>Robert S. C. Gordon, Modern Luck: Narratives of Fortune in the Long Twentieth Century 18 (2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> Id <\/em>at 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a> See generally <\/em>Edward L. Deci & Richard M. Ryan, Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness (2018); Lawrence S. Krieger & Kennon M. Sheldon, What Makes Lawyers Happy? A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success<\/em>, 83 Geo. Wash. L. Rev.\u00a0554 (2015).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s December 2012. I\u2019m a 2L. I\u2019m on my way to take my Federal Jurisdiction exam and meet what I think to be my fate, when I run into a well-intentioned faculty member. He asks me where I\u2019m heading. \u201cTo my Fed. Jur. exam,\u201d I manage to get out. His response? \u201cYikes. Tough class. Well\u00a0. 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