In normal times, the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher maintains what Helgi Walker calls a "strong in-office culture," with lawyers favoring in-person meetings over teleconferences.

"I think a lot of firms do a lot of working from home as a regular matter," said Walker, a Gibson Dunn partner who leads the firm's administrative law and regulatory practice group. "But we have an in-office culture because we think it's important to be there together, to just see each other and bounce ideas off of each other."

It is a culture that routinely brings former Supreme Court clerks and onetime top government officials into the same room. But even as the coronavirus outbreak has upended everyday life, ushering in widespread layoffs and office closures, Walker has found herself in distinguished company working from home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Northwest Washington. At her side, and frequently in her lap, is her tri-color papillon: Cache-Cache.

Cache-Cache 

The toy French spaniel was the 36th-ranked papillon in the country at the peak of his show career, she said. On neighborhood strolls, the dog—whose name means "hide and seek" in French—has a way of upstaging his Walker.