Michael S. Coffee

Michael S. Coffee is a trial attorney in the Office of Foreign Litigation at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before joining that Office, Mr. Coffee served as an attorney-adviser for over 21 years in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State. During that time, Mr. Coffee served in the Offices of the Assistant Legal Advisers for Treaty Affairs, Private International Law, Political-Military Affairs, and Arms Control and Verification.  In nearly a decade in the Office of Private International Law, he was responsible for the development and implementation of international rules in areas that included international family law, judicial assistance and cooperation, and electronic commerce. Mr. Coffee served on and headed numerous U.S. delegations to meetings of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, including on governance matters as well as Special Commissions reviewing the operation of the Abduction Convention, Child Protection Convention, Child Support Convention, Adoption Convention, Service Convention, and Evidence Convention. In addition, he headed the U.S. delegation to the Diplomatic Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law that adopted the Judgments Convention. Mr. Coffee also served on and headed numerous U.S. delegations to meetings of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, including its annual governance meetings as well as its Working Group on electronic commerce matters. He has also participated in various committees of the Uniform Law Commission that have focused on international and family law matters. In other offices within the Office of the Legal Adviser, Mr. Coffee advised on issues that have included treaty law and practice, export controls, foreign assistance, and chemical and biological weapons matters. After graduating from the George Washington University Law School, Mr. Coffee served as an attorney-advisor in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, until that agency merged with the U.S. Department of State.