Legal Beagles Join With Other Canines in Take Your Dog to Work Day
At workplaces throughout the country today, some occupants wore fur coats despite the summery weather. That’s because today was the 10th annual Take Your Dog to Work Day, prompting owners across a wide spectrum of careers to bring their pets along with their briefcases and bag lunches.
For some canines, though, it was a work day like any other, because their owners routinely take them to the office. Among the lucky dogs in this category is Abby, a 7-year-old Labrador retriever who accompanies Judge Sue Haggerty to court in Saxonburg, Penn., reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The judge, who has been bringing a dog to work with her for 10 years, “initially wanted to have some protection when leaving the courthouse late at night,” the newspaper explains. Although Haggerty doesn’t take Abby into court during trials, she does find that the dog can be a plus with young sexual assault victims intimidated by the court setting and the judge’s black robe. “There was one case where Abby sat with the child,” the judge notes.
One or more dogs are also a routine part of the workday at Greisman & Carroll, a Washington, D.C.-area law firm where the two partners (and ex-spouses) don’t worry about being conventional and find that a dog can be a plus with clients, attorney Mary Sue Greisman told the Washington Post in an article about last year’s Take Your Dog to Work Day.
“When they see that we have a dog, they feel more comfortable with us as lawyers,” Carroll says “Basically, we’re representing your average citizen. It turned out when they saw we had an animal, for the most part, they could relate to that.”
That can be true, too, when the client is a bigwig, points out the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Shazam, a border collie who regularly goes to work at a small Las Vegas law office, was a hit with rocker Rod Stewart when was deposed by attorney Steve Morris in a contract dispute, the newspaper reported in an article about the 2006 Take Your Dog to Work Day.
“He really likes dogs, so he stopped for a moment and got acquainted with her,” recounts Morris, of Morris Pickering Peterson & Trachok. “They got on famously.”
