They did this partly to encourage their employees to work from home and on their own schedules. “My old firm would drive me bonkers,” Ms. Geller said. “If I have a slow week, why can’t I take a day, run errands? You’d better believe, when something urgent comes in, I’m going to work an all-nighter.” Four of the six employees have young children, and two set aside standing blocks of time to spend with them each week.

The other advantage is to hold down expenses, of course, which allows the Geller Law Group to maintain reasonable profit margins while charging less than competitors with higher overhead. (Ms. Simon and Ms. Geller, who bill themselves out at $280 an hour, conducted market research. Ms. Simon was determined to stay under $300 for the same psychological reason that “real estate agents price things at $999,000.”) To keep track of one another, the lawyers and a paralegal meticulously update their shared Google calendars and communicate constantly through Gchat.

Ms. Simon delights in the guerrilla-style logistics of a mostly virtual firm. She says clients generally don’t know that the firm doesn’t have its own space, though she tells them if they ask. If clients call the firm’s main number, they are greeted by an automated switchboard. Ms. Simon’s extension and direct dial go to a landline at her home in Washington — a custom-ordered Vonage number with a Virginia area code and the same first digit as the firm’s. When she’s not at home, those calls are forwarded to her cellphone.

This structure is not for everyone. The firm’s lone male associate, Michael Munson, told me he quit in January because he craved the camaraderie of colleagues. But it’s a style that’s rapidly proliferating, with dozens of similar firms opening around the country over the last decade, according to Joan C. Williams of the Center for WorkLife Law at University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Most days, the Geller Law Group’s arrangements work seamlessly. Some days they do not. Half an hour after the former condo association president left, Ms. Simon was checking email when a Metro Offices receptionist announced that she would have to vacate the conference room for the next booking. Two Metro Offices employees had a spirited debate over which room Ms. Simon had rented for the rest of the day, before directing her to Room 22. But when Ms. Simon trooped down the hall and opened the door, she found it occupied by her paralegal, Crystal Martinez. She stepped out for lunch and returned 30 minutes later (this time to Room 19) for a meeting with her associate, Sophia Chase, who recently moved from Washington to North Carolina.

After Barack Obama won the presidency, he committed to making his White House family-friendly, to which Rahm Emanuel, then his chief of staff, aptly retorted, “Family-friendly to your family.” The Geller Law Group tries to be family-friendly, but not in the White House sense. Ms. Martinez, the paralegal, joined the firm because she wanted to work a reduced schedule after having a child in 2013. Her previous employer, a larger Washington firm, told her that only lawyers could work a reduced schedule, not paralegals.