Melissa Coffey is senior counsel with Foley & Lardner LLP and a member of the firm’s Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Government Enforcement, Compliance & White Collar Defense Practices.
Her practice concentrates on complex civil litigation, securities litigation and enforcement matters, government and internal investigations, and False Claims Act litigation and investigations. Ms. Coffey has experience with shareholder derivative actions, class actions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, representation of public companies and their officers and directors in SEC enforcement matters, internal and government investigations and related civil litigation, and False Claims Act qui tam (whistleblower) investigations and litigation, all involving a variety of alleged wrongdoing. She also has diverse experience with complex civil litigation, and has tried several cases. Ms. Coffey has represented individuals and private and public companies in the financial services, pharmaceutical, medical supplies, automotive and high technology industries, among others.
Prior to joining Foley, Ms. Coffey worked for WilmerHale LLP in Boston, where she focused on securities litigation and enforcement matters, pharmaceutical investigations and other white-collar matters, and complex commercial litigation.
Ms. Coffey’s experience includes:
- Representation of three senior securities lending executives in civil litigation and an SEC investigation of those executives and their former employer, a major financial institution, that the SEC ultimately declined to pursue, regarding alleged material misrepresentations immediately following the Lehman Bros. collapse.
- Extensive work in 2012 on a significant internal investigation for a pharmaceutical company involving potential False Claims Act and criminal issues.
- Representation of current and former employees of an Indian-based worldwide business technology company in federal grand jury and related investigations concerning immigration matters.
- Defense of telecommunications company in multiple securities class actions and successful appeal upholding dismissal of shareholder derivative lawsuit relating to restatement of financial results and alleged misrepresentations regarding product capabilities.
- Representation of a financial institution in government investigations and litigation arising out of False Claims Act qui tam allegations regarding foreign exchange trading practices.
Ms. Coffey co-authored “The Era of the Whistleblower Has Arrived,” which was published in the December 2012 – January 2013 issue of Executive Counsel.
Ms. Coffey received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University (A.B., cum laude, 2001) and her law degree from Boston College Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, 2004). She was a member of the Boston College Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Ms. Coffey served a judicial clerkship with the Honorable D. Brock Hornby of the U.S. District Court, District of Maine.
Ms. Coffey is a member of the American Bar Association. She is admitted to practice in Florida and Massachusetts, and before the U.S. District Court for the Middle, Northern, and Southern Districts of Florida; the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Florida; the First Circuit Court of Appeals; and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.