John P. Coffey

B.S., with merit, United States Naval Academy; J.D., magna cum laude, Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Coffey is Managing Director of BlackRobe Capital Partners, LLC, a commercial claim investment fund manager. He is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, former litigation partner at the international law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, and former co-managing partner at the boutique plaintiffs litigation firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP. An experienced trial lawyer, Professor Coffey has tried cases as a federal prosecutor, plaintiff's attorney and defense attorney. While at Bernstein Litowitz, Professor Coffey led teams that recovered almost $10 billion for defrauded securities investors and served as lead lawyer in two of the largest civil cases ever to go to trial: the WorldCom Securities Litigation and the Baptist Foundation of Arizona audit malpractice case. Professor Coffey's role in the WorldCom prosecution was featured in two American Lawyer articles ("Taking Citi To School" (December 2004) and "Breaking The Banks" (November 2005)), and a profile in Bloomberg Markets ("Wall Street's New Nemesis" (September 2005)). Professor Coffey was named one of the country's "top ten" winning trial attorneys by the National Law Journal in 2005, and was repeatedly selected as one of Lawdragon's top 500 American lawyers prior to his retirement from Bernstein Litowitz to run (unsuccessfully) for the Democratic nomination for New York Attorney General in 2010. A retired Navy Captain, Professor Coffey's naval career included assignments as personal military assistant to Vice President George H.W. Bush and commanding officer of a reserve P-3C Orion squadron and the reserve component of the Enterprise battle group staff. Professor Coffey previously taught a seminar in criminal procedure as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School. Professor Coffey is a member of the American Bar Association's Committee on Corporate Laws, the Federal Bar Council, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the Georgetown Law Board of Visitors.