Other Food Besides

Remarks from the high scorer of the Texas Bar Examination.

By Jeffrey Tyler Crough

Jeffrey Tyler Crough (middle right), the high scorer of the February 2018 Texas Bar Examination and a Columbia Law School graduate, with Texas Board of Law Examiners Executive Director Susan Henricks, Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht, and Texas Board of Law Examiners Vice Chair Augustin Rivera Jr. Photo by Eric Quitugua.

Good morning, Chief Justice Hecht, Presiding Judge Keller, justices and judges, members of the bar, friends, family, and may it please the court. I’m honored and humbled to be standing before you today.

I’m also surprised. I have never addressed a large crowd of people before, so please bear with me. When Justice Brown called to ask if I’d like to give some brief remarks, I’ll admit, the prospect was rather terrifying. But it seems like good policy to tell a Texas Supreme Court justice yes when he asks if you can do something, so here we go …

Let me start by congratulating all of you who passed the February 2018 exam. This is the culmination of years of hard work and a testament to your perseverance. I’d also like to recognize and congratulate everyone who supported you on your journey to today.

I think it’s safe to say that none of us made it here alone. I wouldn’t be here today were it not for my fiancée, Melissa. In the most immediate sense, that’s because without her I wouldn’t have moved to the great state of Texas eight months ago and had the immense “pleasure” of taking the bar exam in a second state. In the most important sense, she has seen me through and endured every trial and tribulation since we met in our first year of law school. Melissa, I’m so happy that I can share this moment of celebration with you, as you have steadfastly shared challenging times with me.

I would also like to thank my mother, brother, and grandma. They weren’t able to travel to Austin today, but Melissa is recording this speech, so I better not forget them. Know that a desire to make you proud and justify your years of sacrifice is one of my greatest motivations.

I’m afraid I don’t have any original pearls of wisdom that could warrant my giving a speech. But since I’m up here, the best I can do is share someone else’s pearl of wisdom that seems apt for this ceremony. The great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote, “[H]appiness, I am sure from having known many successful men, cannot be won simply by being counsel for great corporations and having an income of fifty thousand dollars. An intellect great enough to win the prize needs other food besides success.”

I guess we’d need to adjust for inflation to fully make the point. OK, I did, and it works out to about one million dollars.

But what strikes me about Holmes’ insight, other than the inflation, is this: happiness from your career doesn’t come solely from personal achievement—it takes something more. Maybe it’s pride in your craftsmanship, or the camaraderie of your colleagues, or the satisfaction of solving your client’s problems, or the intellectual challenge of our profession. I think we all should strive to find that something.

So, for those of you embarking on your legal careers, or at least your Texas legal careers, I wish you much success. What’s more, I wish you other food besides success—I wish you meaning and fulfillment. Thank you.^TBJ

February 2018 Bar Exam Pass Rate Information

The table below shows the number of graduates from each accredited Texas law school who took the bar exam for the first time in February, the number that passed, and the percentage that passed.

{Back to top}