While listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, the musical mentions that Hamilton tried the country's first murder trial. In the musical Hamilton boastfully states, "I practice the law, I practically perfected it..."
I don't take the musical to be an authoritative source, of course, but was curious - do we have objective evidence of Hamilton's success (or failure) as a private practice attorney?
As a huge fan of the musical, I'm happy to address this with some historical context.
After the victory at Yorktown in October 1781, Hamilton resigned his commission in January 1782. He returned to New York where he conducted some self-guided education and then took and passed the oral Bar exam in July 1782 (Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton pp 169) where he then set up his own law practice. He was fortunate that he served in the war, and was thus granted an exemption requiring him to have apprenticed a practicing lawyer as was the requirement during this period. Also in July 1782, Hamilton won an appointment to the Congress of the Confederation, which predated the US Legislature of the US Constitution. Hamilton's practice was a shared partnership with another lawyer named Richard Harrison, who would also go on to become a Federalist.
New York only had about 40 - 50 bar-attorney's and Hamilton did stand out during this period. He took the occasional criminal case during this period, but he was most known for his civil cases, which is also where he made his money and his fame. He's most famous for the case Rutgers v. Waddington, where even though Hamilton lost the case, he was happy to see that the chief Justice established that state law could not overrule Federal law - something he'd cherish for the rest of his life. Hamilton would go on to represent over 60 different former loyalists during this period, leading skeptics to accuse him of betraying the ideals he once fought for. Hamilton essentially argued that we need to 'forgive and forget' when it came to loyalists who were staying in the United States. Hamilton was successful in many ways, especially with his ability to make strong arguments in court and established a strong reputation for himself as a strong orator. Hamilton's law practice slowed in 1787 when he moved into politics when he was invited to the Continental Convention of 1787.
Worth Mentioning is that after Hamilton left politics in the 1790s, he did return to practicing law. This is where the Hamilton musical gets creative with timelines. Because when it mentions his law practice, in the early 1780s, the "first murder trial in our brand new nation" he's referring to is actually a case that was tried in 1780. People v. Weeks. Hamilton and Burr (and one additional attorney) successfully defended Weeks, since all the evidence against him was circumstantial.