At the American Kennel Club, its law department of three lawyers and two staff attorneys is certainly dog friendly. According to its general counsel, Margaret Poindexter, in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Dec. 2008 at 105, “Our building is full of dogs” – but the dogs must have the “good canine certificate” the AKC gives after a basic obedience test. Would that we had the same kind of certificate for lawyers!
Poindexter likes dogs “I can’t tell you the number of times when I’m having a stressful day, and I see someone’s dog in their cubicle; it is a huge stress release to have that kind of canine contact.” Well, maybe, unless you are allergic to dogs or afraid of them. At least one other law department I know accommodates our canine companions, but to imagine it is a trend in law departments is to bark up the wrong tree.
I couldn’t resist searching among my 14.4 megabytes of posts for references to dogs. Sure enough, a pack of dog metaphors are littered throughout (See my post of March 3, 2008: dog in the manger; May 5, 2008: double-dog dare; Aug. 28, 2008: unleash the dogs of law; Oct. 11, 2008: dog-and-pony show; Dec. 2, 2008: dog’s breakfast; Oct. 19, 2005: bird-dog; Oct. 19, 2005: old dog new tricks; Dec. 8, 2006: dogfight; Jan. 4, 2008: let sleeping dogs lie; May 30, 2005: man-bites-dog story; and Dec. 9, 2005: watchdog.).