Jeffrey Mueller of Day Pitney/courtesy photo

Two months after the Sandy Hook families hired former U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., of Munger, Tolles & Olson, as lead counsel in its litigation with Remington Arms Company LLC, the gunmaker has hired a Day Pitney partner.

Court records show Day Pitney"s Jeffrey Paul Mueller, from the firm's Hartford offices, entered an appearance Wednesday on behalf of Remington.

Mueller represents the company in the lawsuit brought by families of nine victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The suit seeks financial damages against Remington and its daughter company, Bushmaster Firearms International LLC.

In a case that is entering its sixth year of litigation, large firms have joined the effort on both sides. In addition to Munger, which has more than 200 attorneys, and Day Pitney, which has more than 300 attorneys in 13 offices, Baker Botts is also part of the litigation. The international law firm has about 725 attorneys, and is one of the firms representing Remington.

Day Pitney and Mueller's appearance in the case comes nearly one month after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Remington appeal.

The company had raised a challenge, arguing it had zero liability for the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, which left 20 schoolchildren and six educators dead. The case will decide whether victims' families can hold companies accountable for crimes committed with their products. It will now continue in Connecticut courts.

Meet Mueller

Mueller did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. A 2007 graduate of Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of Yale Law & Policy Review, he has been with Day Pitney since September 2008. He was named partner in 2016. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson.

The Connecticut Law Tribune named him among the "New Leaders of the Law for 2014." Mueller's biography on Day Pitney's website shows he represents clients in complex business disputes involving negligence, breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair trade practices, and securities violations, among other issues. His clients include United Technologies Corp.

"Jeff is incredibly smart and very creative," United Technologies chief litigation counsel Steven Greenspan said of Mueller in a testimonial posted on Day Pitney's website. "He sees arguments and positions that other lawyers simply don't see."

In 2017, Mueller represented Duracell in a federal lawsuit against Ocean State Job Lot, claiming the discount retail chain was selling Duracell products not meant for sale in the United States. That case is pending.

Remington was pinning its hopes on the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields gunmakers, and it hoped the country's highest court would overrule a March Connecticut Supreme Court ruling. In that ruling, the state court justices found that the plaintiffs could sue Remington under an exception to the federal law, allowing legal action to proceed over the way the company sold and marketed firearms,

Attorneys for the families have reiterated throughout that the AR-15 rifle, like the one Adam Lanza used at Sandy Hook, should only be used in battle, and not sold to civilians.

Josh Koskoff, Alinor Sterling, and Katherine Mesner-Hage of Bridgeport-based Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder originally filed the lawsuit. Andrew Friedman, a spokesman for the firm, said no one from the plaintiff's side, including the seven attorneys from Munger, would be commenting on Remington's hiring of Mueller and Day Pitney.

In addition to Day Pitney, Remington's legal team includes Baker Botts litigators Scott Keller and Stephanie Cagnairt, and Swanson Martin & Bell attorneys James Vogts and Andrew Lothson of Chicago.