Amid a critical shortage of key medical supplies for frontline U.S. health care workers combating COVID-19, particularly for personal protective equipment such as masks, employees at Hogan Lovells found a way to help. And it didn't involve legal advice.

The firm said marketing and business development specialists in its New York and Washington, D.C., offices remembered seeing N95 masks in emergency packs handed out to new Hogan Lovells employees. The N95 masks, while not 100% effective in preventing infection, are as close as mass-produced barriers can get and are the recommended choice of health care workers.

Mostly forgotten about, the packs were intended to be a last resort in the wake of an event such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.