Sean Coffey

The Honorable John P. (“Sean”) Coffey was confirmed by the Senate in February 2022 as the 24th General Counsel of the Navy, and served in that senior national security, four-star equivalent role until January 20, 2025. He led the Department of the Navy’s Office of General Counsel, comprised of more than 1,100 attorneys and support staff in 140 offices worldwide providing legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy and the multiple components of the Department, including the Navy and Marine Corps. Among Mr. Coffey’s more notable achievements as Navy GC were founding the “Taxpayer Advocacy Project” to apply novel legal authorities to enhance defense contractor performance, and initiating the exhaustive record review that led to the exoneration of 256 African American Sailors wrongfully convicted in the 1944 Port Chicago courts-martial. For these and other contributions, the Secretary of the Navy awarded Mr. Coffey the Department of the Navy’s highest civilian recognition, the Distinguished Public Service Award, in 2025.

Mr. Coffey graduated with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978 with a B.S. in Ocean Engineering. He was Honor Graduate of his Naval Flight Officer class and served eight years on active duty, including assignments as a P-3C Orion mission commander hunting Soviet submarines during the Cold War, junior officer intern for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and special military assistant (personal aide) to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Mr. Coffey attended Georgetown Law’s evening program while assigned to the Pentagon and White House. He won the Charles Keigwin Award for the highest grades by a first-year evening student as well as American Jurisprudence awards for best exams in Constitutional Law and Torts. Mr. Coffey was elected to the Order of the Coif honor society and served as Articles Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal (its only night student editor). After graduating magna cum laude in 1987, Mr. Coffey returned home to New York, where he practiced law for thirty-five years, including several years as an AUSA in the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Coffey continued to serve in the Navy Reserve for eighteen years, where he was selected as Commanding Officer both of a reserve P-3C squadron and the reserve component of the Enterprise carrier battle group staff. Mr. Coffey’s last duty assignment as a Reservist was as an action officer on the staff of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs in the Pentagon. He retired as a Captain in 2004. Mr. Coffey’s military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Vice Presidential Service Badge, Command-At-Sea Badge, Navy Expeditionary Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, and Navy Pistol Expert Medal. Mr. Coffey is the only Annapolis graduate ever to have served as General Counsel of the Navy.

Prior to assuming office as Navy GC, Mr. Coffey was a nationally renowned trial lawyer who compiled a record of notable success both as a plaintiffs’ lawyer and defense lawyer across a broad range of commercial, securities, accounting, class action, and other complex matters. He earned the sobriquet “Wall Street’s New Nemesis” after his role in cases such as the historic WorldCom Securities Litigation, which he took to trial in 2005 and where his team recovered over $6.2 billion for defrauded investors. Mr. Coffey was a member of Georgetown Law’s Board of Visitors for over a decade and has been active as an GULC adjunct professor, teaching Trial Practice (2011-16) and currently teaching Professional Responsibility.

After resigning as Navy GC, Mr. Coffey joined the distinguished panel of neutrals at Phillips Alternative Dispute Resolution Enterprises, the Nation’s premier firm to assist litigants resolve disputes out of court either through mediation or arbitration.

Mr. Coffey is admitted to the bars of New York and New Jersey. He retains a Top Secret/SCI security clearance.