Connecticut solo practitioner Kristan Peters-Hamlin has tried dozens of cases to verdict, written more than 50 appellate briefs and had more than 40 appellate arguments, according to her online bio.

But in the mid-1990s, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., with none other than Robert Mueller—the man now on the national stage as special counsel heading a federal investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.