News & Politics

Love Your Pet: A Lawyer’s Dogs

Jeannie Perron is one of the only lawyer/vets in the country.

This article is from 2006's Pet Guide package. The information may be out-of-date, so please call locations listed for new information.

To see the new Pet Guide from 2008, click here.

Growing up in Camp Springs, Jeannie Perron wanted to be both a veterinarian and an attorney. Perron, of counsel at the DC law firm Covington & Burling, is now one of only about 50 lawyer/vets in the country.

"I do food-and-drug law, with an emphasis on animal food and drugs," she says.

She has two dogs of her own, greyhounds named Jane and Mr. Rochester after the characters in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. She fell in love with greyhounds while in veterinary school in Texas.

"They are the sweetest, gentlest breed," she says. "They're calm to the point of a coma."

Perron's three children love walking the dogs, although Jane and Mr. Rochester aren't athletic. "Greyhounds sleep 20 hours a day," she says.

For a lawyer with a high-stress life, that's a good thing.

"They calm me down," Perron says. "They're great for blood pressure."