WELCOMES
Hon. John P. (“Sean”) Coffey
Sean Coffey recently joined Phillips ADR’s distinguished panel of neutrals after serving as the 24th General Counsel of the Navy. Prior to assuming that office, Sean was a nationally renowned trial lawyer who compiled a record of notable successes both as a plaintiffs’ lawyer and defense lawyer across a broad range of commercial, securities, shareholder derivative, breach of fiduciary duty, accounting, class action, real estate, intellectual property, mass tort, bankruptcy, insurance, employment, regulatory, litigation finance, and other complex matters.
Sean offers a unique perspective to parties seeking to resolve a dispute: he knows first-hand the challenges, motivations, and risks faced by both plaintiffs and defendants because he handled, and repeatedly took to trial, numerous significant plaintiff and defense cases. As a young partner at Latham & Watkins LLP, for example, Sean secured a directed verdict ending a bet-the-company case against a major firm client upon conclusion of his incisive cross-examination of the plaintiff. After “switching sides” to join Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, Sean represented institutional investors as plaintiffs in major securities cases for over a decade. 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 and where his team recovered over $6.2 billion for defrauded investors. Sean later returned to the defense side and served for nine years as Chair of Complex Litigation at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, where corporate clients benefited from Sean’s valuable insights into the plaintiffs’ approach to litigation.
Confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Navy General Counsel in February 2022, Sean led the Department of the Navy’s Office of the General Counsel, comprised of more than 1,100 attorneys and professional support staff in 140 offices worldwide providing legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary, the Assistant Secretaries and their staffs, and the multiple components of the Department, to include the Navy and Marine Corps. Among Sean’s more notable achievements was 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 Sean the Department of the Navy’s highest civilian recognition, the Distinguished Public Service Award, in 2025.
Born in the Bronx, Sean is the oldest of seven children of Irish immigrants. He graduated with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978 with a B.S. in Ocean Engineering, was selected as Honor Graduate of Naval Flight Officer training, and served eight years on active duty, including assignments as a P-3C Orion mission commander hunting Soviet submarines during the Cold War, a junior officer intern for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the special military assistant (personal aide) to Vice President George Bush. Sean attended Georgetown Law’s evening program while assigned to the Pentagon and White House, graduating magna cum laude in 1987. Sean returned to New York, where he practiced law for thirty-five years, including several years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, where he tried over a dozen jury trials to verdict. Sean 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. Sean retired at the rank of Captain in 2004, shortly before taking the WorldCom case to trial.
Sean has long been active in community service, serving on the boards of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, Common Cause New York, Council for Unity, Greenhope Services for Women, and ThanksUSA, among others. He served as President of the Federal Bar Foundation and Vice President of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1978. Sean was a long-time member of the Board of Visitors at Georgetown Law, where he taught trial practice as an adjunct professor for several years. Sean has established a number of scholarships for veterans and military dependents in the name of his immigrant father, a carpenter who came to the United States with only a fourth grade education but sent all seven children to college.
Sean’s commitment to public service has been recognized with awards such as the Federal Bar Council’s Whitney North Seymour Award and Common Cause New York’s John Gardner Award. Georgetown Law presented Sean with its Paul R. Dean Award as an outstanding alumnus at his class’s 25th reunion. The Contra Costa County Bar Association recently presented Sean with its “Port Chicago Exoneration Champion” award for leading the investigation that exonerated the Port Chicago courts-martial defendants (now the subject of a play and two forthcoming documentaries).
Sean’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.
Sean is admitted in New York and New Jersey. He retains a Top Secret/SCI security clearance.
To schedule Mr. Coffey for an upcoming ADR matter, please contact Meghan Lettington at mlettington@phillipsadr.com or (949) 760-5280.
Layn R. Phillips Former U.S. District Judge