Cheng and her partner Fredric Cohen detailed some of the advantages of a boutique law firm in the main article, but they failed to mention the real reason - Scout.

When the two started their own law firm, Cheng Cohen, they looked for a bright, sunny office with lots of open space and hardwood floors. "We wanted a totally different atmosphere," Cheng says. Part of that difference was a dogs-inclusive policy.

While Scout has the right to first refusal, employees can sign up their dog days on a central calendar. Dogs take turns, because Scout, a border collie/Australian Cattle Dog mix, only likes to hang with smaller dogs - she's territorial, Cheng says.

But in all fairness, Scout does attend daycare three or four days a week. At the end of the day, she's dropped off at the office. (We neglected to ask, but we think it's a doggie taxi service and not a limo that's at Scout's beck and call.)

All the world does not love dogs, so visitors buzz in to alert Scout that she needs to return to either Cheng's or Cohen's office and lie down. If it's the UPS delivery man, Scout's nemesis, the custodial parent also has to close their office door. (We should disclose here that the real reason guests buzz in is for security, not because Scout runs in the office.)

Every day an employer-paid lunch, which is served family-style in the downstairs kitchen area, is delivered from various restaurants around the West Loop area of Chicago. Scout, who has "the keen analytical skills and intelligence" of a lawyer's dog, is the first to know the food is on the way and hightails it downstairs to wait for the in-house lawyers to join her.

Cheng is quick to point out that just because they allow dogs in the office doesn't mean they don't take their work seriously. They work like dogs - not like Scout, who is prone to take naps in the office - but like Scout's ancestors who herded cattle and chased off geese from golf courses day in and day out. "Everyone works hard. We're on our Blackberries 24-7," she says, adding she dislikes boutique firms that allow 9-to-5ers. And when client meetings are held onsite, Scout and his ilk aren't invited.

The senior dog is accident-free at work, but that's not always the case. Cheng laughs as she tells about an employee's dog that ran into her office, stared her in the eye and then proceeded to pee on the floor. The employee was mortified, but Cheng took it all in stride.

"We have hardwood floors," she explains - all the better for pee clean up, my dear.

The other half of the team, Cohen - the big, bad, scary litigator - shares in the dog walking and praising Scout for being such a good girl. We imagine him doing it in high-pitched, baby talk, but Cheng refused to confirm it.