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.

[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.

He graduated from Chaminade High School in 1974 and won an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, taking the oath of office as a midshipman at age 17.

[10][11] 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.

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.

CEO Marissa Meyer, the former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre (aka Fabulous Fab), and Hollywood actor and producer Brad Pitt.

[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,".

[33] 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.

[36][37] In late 2011, Coffey and Timothy Scrantom founded BlackRobe Capital Partners, a commercial claim investor based in New York City.