Shannen Wayne Coffin (born September 19, 1969) is an American attorney for the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

law firm

Steptoe & Johnson Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Brussels, Beijing, and Hong Kong. History Philip Steptoe and Louis A. Johnson, both g ...

LLP who until early November 2007 served as general

counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

, 21 August 2007: ''Officials admit having wiretap papers''

/ref> Coffin was previously at the United States Department of Justice, Department of Justice, where he served as a Deputy

Assistant Attorney General Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an assistant attorney general. The president of the United States appoints individuals to the position of assistant attorney general with the advice and ...

of the Civil Division. In that position, Coffin was responsible for oversight of the Federal Programs Branch, a component of the Civil Division that defends the federal government in a diverse array of lawsuits, including the defense of constitutional challenges to federal statutes and agency programs, civil anti-terrorism litigation, and disputes involving access to

Executive Branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a State (polity), state. In poli ...

information. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Coffin had worked for Steptoe & Johnson in its Supreme Court and appellate practice. He clerked for Judge

David B. Sentelle David Bryan Sentelle (born February 12, 1943) is a United States federal judge, Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Early life, family and education David Sentelle was bor ...

on the

U.S. Court of Appeals The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fro ...

for the

D.C. Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

in the 1994–1995 term. Coffin came to national attention when his correspondence with

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

surfaced in regard to the

NSA warrantless surveillance controversy The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

that became public in August 2007. Coffin is married to Casey Coffin and has written articles for ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...

''s website and publications for the

Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (abbreviated as FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered ...

. He grew up in Springhill in northernmost

Webster Parish Webster Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de Webster'') is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. As of the 2010 census, the Webster Parish population was 41,207. In 2018, the ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

References

External links

* 1969 births Living people People from Springhill, Louisiana People from Washington, D.C. American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub