While his peers spent the past few months worrying about billing the requisite hours and keeping their desk jobs, Maj. Frank “Gus” Biggio helped build a forward operating base and kept his eyes peeled for IEDs.

Biggio, a Marine Corps reservist and fourth-year associate in Patton Boggs‘ Washington, D.C., office, recently returned to the firm after spending seven months leading a civil affairs unit in Nawa, a restive region in southern Afghanistan where Marines are currently taking part in an offensive called Operation Moshtarak.