Devon Partridge is studying online for an LL.M. from Loyola University Chicago. She works full-time, but by taking advantage of the program’s flexibility, she still makes time for family.
Monday mornings are tough for just about every working person. That’s because, well, they’re Monday mornings.
Arguably, they’re even tougher for Devon Partridge, an associate attorney in Jacksonville, Fla., who’s getting her LL.M. degree online from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
On Mondays, she’s up at 5:30 a.m. She takes her dog, a Golden Labrador named Ko, for a walk, but it’s not your average stroll. She listens to her recorded LL.M. lectures, which can run as long as 45 minutes.
“Mondays set my tone for the week,” said Partridge, 30, who works as a medical malpractice attorney for the firm of Cronin & Maxwell.
She said she thought it would be advantageous to get an LL.M. in heath care because it could provide her with critical knowledge about how the system works. She sees the system primarily from the other side, from the side of those who have been injured by malpractice.
She said she knew the LL.M. program would be tough. And she made it even tougher by asking to complete it in four semesters instead of the normal six.
An online LL.M. can be stressful because it requires significant effort from people who already have a lot on their plates. Partridge tackles it with discipline and gusto.
After her morning walk, she eats breakfast — usually oatmeal — showers, dresses, packs a lunch of leftovers, kisses her husband (also an attorney, but not an LL.M. student) and heads out the door.
She has a 45-minute commute to work. She doesn’t listen to the radio or a podcast. She listens to an LL.M. lecture as she drives her Honda Passport. She either picks up where she left off earlier or listens to it yet again.
Right before work, she does this very sweet thing: She calls her grandmother. She does this every day. Family is important, and it’s a nice short break.
Work begins at about 8:45. School is no longer in session. The day can bring all of sorts of demands, and her focus is on that, her work. She may have new cases to investigate or current ones that need her attention. She may have to go to a local hospital to get medical records. Who really knows?
Partridge gets a half-hour lunch and checks in with her husband, who is an in-house counsel for a company in Jacksonville.
In the afternoon, she meets with her boss and they go over their caseload. Again, it runs the gamut. Cases could be just beginning or nearing the end or somewhere in the middle. They could require immediate attention or additional research or other work.
“Case management takes time,” she said.
When her day is done, she again hits the road, but she uses this time to decompress from work. As she drives, she may listen to a podcast. Partridge speaks both Italian and French, and sometimes she listens to news in those languages.
“It’s my time to reset,” she said.
Arriving home at about 6:15, she begins thinking about school again, about what obligations she has. First, however, she and her husband have dinner and take the dog for a short walk. Afterward, she heads to her loft, where she has a small office, and begins schoolwork again in earnest.
It’s a challenging juggling act. Her program has both live classes and prerecorded lectures. If she can’t make the live class — that’s not unusual for working students — she can listen later. There is also a lot of required reading.
Flexibility and the opportunity to tailor-make her LL.M. were key reasons that she chose Loyola University Chicago. When she was in law school studying for her J.D., she had an internship at a legal health technology company. There she met her mentor, a female attorney who had received an LL.M. through the school’s online program.
When Partridge considered doing so, she reached out and asked for advice. She also did research on the degree to learn how it could benefit her career.
“I got a lot of information,” she said.
Partridge had taken a couple courses online before, but she had never used interactive platforms such as Zoom. She found it to be a welcome change, given that the give-and-take can add to the experience.
At night, Partridge does her reading or works on her thesis, which is another bonus of the program, she said. The thesis is her crowning achievement, and the topic is something she believes in strongly. It centers on what she sees as the main problem with medical malpractice cases — nobody really wins when the goal is so focused on financial outcomes, she said — and what reforms should be considered.
“Sometimes people want to know what went wrong and what can be done to prevent it from happening again,” she said.
At night, Partridge spends hours in her loft doing research and writing, as her LL.M. program reaches its peak. She also tries to stay ahead of her required course work, so she can devote the necessary time to her thesis. She’s in regular contact with her LL.M. adviser on its progress.
Just about every day, she follows the same pattern. She wraps up studying by 10 p.m. and is in bed by 10:30. She finds herself falling asleep easily.
“I do my best not to be stressed,” she said.
By Friday, after a week of such effort, she is ready for a bit of break. In the morning, she may treat herself to a coffee out and touch base with her family, who lives in Denver. Not only does the office provide a catered lunch on Fridays but it lets employees off about an hour early. In the evening, there is no schoolwork.
“I relax,” she said.
On Fridays, she and her husband might get together with friends or have a date night. Or she may Facetime with her niece and nephew.
But the respite doesn’t last long. She uses Saturdays to catch up with any loose ends when it comes to school. She’s up by 6:30 a.m.
“I have an internal clock,” she said.
She may do more reading or go on discussion boards and engage with fellow students. The program has a number of interactive features, which she finds very beneficial since she’s the only student in her cohort who works as a malpractice attorney. Many others are in the health care field.
Later, she’ll work on her thesis, and if she’s on a roll, she may spend hours doing so. In the late afternoon, she stops. She may jump in the community pool, go grocery shopping or do household chores.
Sunday? That’s a more leisurely day. She and husband may take a walk on the beach, have a leisurely breakfast and walk the dog. But in the afternoon, it’s back to schoolwork to wrap up the week.
By 4 p.m., she stops with school and begins making Sunday dinner, a ritual.
Later that evening, she may do a puzzle, or she and her husband may watch a movie. Monday is coming up, and the cycle will begin again.
Even though the schedule can be grueling, there is most definitely a light at the end of the tunnel: She’s in her final semester.
“My advisers were always very realistic,” Partridge said. “This is a lot.”
She knows one thing for sure: When it’s all said and done, “I won’t struggle to find things to do to fill my time.”
Mike Stetz is a contributing editor for National Jurist and preLaw.
