Phil grew up in the Assembly District he now represents. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard (1981) and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1984) where he was a member of the Law Review and Penn’s National Moot Court team. From 1987 to 1989, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York and Rensselaer Counties. Phil joined the law firm of Cooper, Erving and Savage LLP in 1990. His practice is concentrated in civil rights and employment law. He is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association. In 1999, Phil was elected to the Albany County Legislature from the District centered in Menands. He was re-elected three times. In 2012, he won the Primary and General Election to become the representative of the 110th Assembly District.

Phil is Chairman of the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee, and a member of the Health, Insurance, Judiciary, Labor, and Oversight/Investigations Committees. His major legislative interests include single-payer health insurance (Medicare for All), expanding membership in County self-insured health plans to embrace all municipalities so as to reduce health insurance costs funded by taxpayers, reducing heavy-handed practices of State administrative agencies, raising revenue through the stock transfer tax to support rebuilding the infrastructure of Upstate New York, increased funding for public education to meet levels promised in prior legislation, and oversight of the Office of Court Administration.