HHREC Board of Directors Member Appointed to Serve as General Counsel Department of U.S. Navy
White Plains, NY February 16th, 2022 – John P. “Sean” Coffey has been appointed by the U.S. Senate to become General Counsel of the Department of the Navy. Mr. Coffey was nominated as general counsel by President Joe Biden in August 2021. He is a retired Navy captain and former federal prosecutor. Mr. Coffey served on the Board of Directors of White Plains-based Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center.
“With admiration and in friendship, our Board of Directors and staff wish the very best to Sean Coffey” said Millie Jasper, Executive Director, Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center. She added “ Sean has been a valuable member of the Board of Directors for over 11 years, and although we will miss his guidance and support, we know he will make an outstanding contribution in service as General Counsel of the Department of the Navy.”
A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Mr. Coffey served as an active-duty naval flight officer, hunting Soviet submarines during the Cold War, and as a junior staff officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon, at which time he entered the evening J.D. program at Georgetown Law. While earning his law degree, he also served as the personal military assistant to Vice President George H.W. Bush. He left active duty to pursue his legal career in New York but remained in the Navy Reserve for 18 years, retiring in 2004 at the rank of captain. The Department of the Navy Office of the General Counsel (OGC) has more than 800 civilian lawyers in 140 offices and is the second-largest civilian law department in the federal government (DOJ is the largest).
“Sean has been a tremendous and longtime board member. He has been a great resource for me and our entire board” said Michael Gyory, Chairperson of the HHREC Board of Directors. “We are very pleased to know he will be serving our country in this new, important role. Our loss is the U.S. Navy’s gain.”