John Patrick "Sean" Coffey is an American attorney,businessman,retired U.S. Navy captain,and political candidate who served as general counsel of the Navy from 2022 until early 2025. He led a lawsuit against WorldCom on behalf of investors. In the case,his team recovered over $6 billion from Wall Street banks and responsible parties paid millions of dollars in compensation. Bloomberg Markets dubbed Coffey "Wall Street's New Nemesis." In 2009,Coffey retired from his partnership at Bernstein Litowitz Berger &Grossmann to seek the Democratic nomination for New York attorney general;he received 16% of the vote in the primary. In 2011,Coffey co-founded BlackRobe Capital Partners,which closed one and a half years later.
As the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Navy and its chief legal officer Coffey led more than 1,100 attorneys and support staff in 140 offices worldwide.[1] Further in this position,Coffey provided legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy,the Under Secretary of the Navy,the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy and their staffs,and the multiple components of the department,including the Navy and the Marine Corps.[2]
Then United States Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro credits Coffey with having provided the legal framework for the long-awaited exoneration of the Port Chicago 50 as well as 200 other sailors otherwise convicted.[3]
While on active duty in the U.S. Navy he served as the personal military assistant to then Vice President George HW Bush.[8][9]
Career
After leaving active duty,he served in the U.S. Navy as a reservist. He retired from the Navy in 2004.[10][11]
Early legal and political career
In 1987,after resigning from active naval duty,Coffey returned to New York as a litigation associate with Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton &Garrison. He was appointed an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York in 1991,and worked with federal,state,and local law enforcement agencies prosecuting a variety of crimes. He tried a number of cases to verdict.[5] In 1995,Coffey joined the law firm of Latham &Watkins.
Tenures at Bernstein Litowitz Berger &Grossmann and Kramer Levin Naftalis &Frankel
Three years later Coffey joined the litigation firm of Bernstein Litowitz Berger &Grossmann,which represents many institutional investors. During his eleven years at Bernstein Litowitz,Coffey led teams that recovered billions of dollars for victims of corporate fraud. In the WorldCom securities litigation,a case he took to trial in 2005 as lead attorney for thousands of investors,his team recovered over $6 billion from Wall Street banks and required all outside directors and key wrongdoers to contribute millions of dollars from their personal funds.[12][13] He was selected as one of the National Law Journal's "Top Ten Winning Attorneys" (in the United States) of 2005,and was profiled by the American Lawyer,the Wall Street Journal,and Bloomberg Markets magazine,which dubbed him "Wall Street's New Nemesis".[14][15]
In 2013 Coffey joined Kramer Levin Naftalis &Frankel as a lawyer and chairman of its complex litigation department. Reuters writing of Coffey at the time said [that] "Coffey is a rarity in the legal sector,where lawyers are often entrenched at big law firms representing either plaintiffs or defendants and rarely move between them". Then Coffey following through on that told the reporters "I don't consider myself a plaintiffs' lawyer or defense lawyer,I consider myself an advocate who likes to try cases".[16]
Among the notable clients Coffey has defended and or provided legal advice to are the onetime Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer,the former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre (aka Fabulous Fab),and Hollywood actor and producer Brad Pitt.[17][18][19][20]
In October 2009, Coffey retired from his partnership at Bernstein Litowitz to pursue the Democratic nomination for New York State attorney general.[22][23] He reported that he raised over $1.65 million in the first two months of his campaign.[24] His campaign goals included minimizing political corruption and finding a way to advocate for veterans.[25] The Wall Street Journal cited Coffey as one of the top three contenders for the position. Most of the money he raised was from lawyers.[26]
By August 2010, he was lagging behind competitors in fundraising, and had invested $3 million of his own money in his campaign.[27]
Coffey was defeated by Eric Schneiderman in the Democratic primary, receiving 16% of the vote.
General Counsel of the U.S. Navy
On February 26, 2022, Coffey was sworn in as the 24th General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Navy.[28]
As the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Navy and its chief legal officer Coffey led more than 1,100 attorneys and support staff in 140 offices worldwide.[1] Further in this position, Coffey provided legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy and their staffs, and the multiple components of the department, to include the Navy and the Marine Corps.[2]
In this role in speaking to the Washington Post in reference to the Navy's exoneration of the African American sailors, the "Port Chicago 50" who mutinied over life and death working conditions with munitions during World War 2 following the Port Chicago disaster, in which he was instrumental, Coffey stated of the decades ago injustice ... [that] "The trial lawyers did not have time to properly prepare for the case,".[29][30] In fact the legal dilema was more detailed than that as Coffey himself related in a Georgetown Law School magazine article on the case ..."Another issue was the right to effective counsel. and then went on to that “The 50 charged with mutiny were divvied up among five so-called counsel, only one of whom was a lawyer,”...[31]
Further activities
Coffey was previously an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University.[32] In May 2011, Council for Unity honored Sean and Anne Coffey at their Annual "Champions for Children" dinner.[33] In October 2012, he received the Paul R. Dean award from Georgetown Law School, where he teaches trial practice as an adjunct professor.[34] In November 2011, he was honored by the American Jewish Committee Westchester County, New York Chapter with the Learned Hand Award for achievement and ethics as a lawyer and dedication to human rights.[35] In June 2012, he was honored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (of Westchester County, New York) for his dedication to human rights and his service to the center as a director.[36]
Coffey has served or serves on the boards of Common Cause New York, Council for Unity, the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, Greenhope Services for Women, and ThanksUSA.[37][38]
BlackRobe Capital Partners
In late 2011, Coffey and Timothy Scrantom founded BlackRobe Capital Partners, a commercial claim investor based in New York City.[39] The firm shut down one and a half years later, in early 2013.[40][41]
↑ "Wall Street Nemesis Coffey Pledges to Fight Corruption as AG." Niagara Falls Politics. February 2, 2010. Archived July 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
Heller, Emily. "John P. Coffey and Max Berger: A good cop/bad cop dynamic scores big. " National Law Journal. June 20, 2005.
Longstreth, Andrew. "Breaking the Banks." The American Lawyer Dec 2005.
Longstreth, Andrew. "Taking Citi to School." The American Lawyer Dec 2004.
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United States
United States Navy
Captain