Philip Foglia, Esq.

1951 - 2020

Philip Foglia, son of a highly decorated Police Detective, was raised in the Belmont (Little Italy) section of . He graduated from Mt. Carmel, Mt. St. Michael and where he was student body president and valedictorian. While in college Mayor Lindsay appointed him to the City’s Diamond Jubilee Committee. In 1973 Phil was awarded a fellowship by the University of California for Economic Development. He attended Pace University Law School, evening division while working full time as Executive Director of the NY Center for Community Affairs administering employment programs in the Bronx. Phil graduated from Law School as an editor of the Law Review in 1980.

Phil worked as a community organizer for the Council of Belmont Organizations (COBO), the Italian American Alliance and the Center for Ethnic Affairs. He was a member of Community Planning Board #6 and was appointed by Mayor Koch to the Council on Intergroup Relations, helping to ease tensions between various communities in the City.

Upon admission to the Bar, Phil was appointed an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx working in Appeals and Rackets where he ultimately was elevated to Deputy Chief of Economic Crimes and the Public Corruption Unit. He was cross designated as an Assistant United States Attorney under Rudolph Giuliani assigned to the Organized Crime and Public Corruption Strike Force for over four years. He was the primary prosecutor who sent various public officials to prison. In 1988, he was appointed Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations in County.

Phil was a partner in a White Plains law firm for 17 years and was Special Counsel for the City of Yonkers for a decade. Additionally, Phil was Special Deputy Inspector General and Chief on Investigations for the State of New York.

Phil served for eight years as a member of the Mayor Giuliani’s Committee on the Judiciary and also served on Mayor Bloomberg’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Advisory Committee. In 2006, Governor Pataki appointed Phil as a trustee of the City University Construction Fund.

Phil was Vice President of the Southeast Bronx Community Organization where he ran two senior citizen centers, two homeless shelters, and built and managed affordable housing.

Phil was the pro bono Chief Counsel of the Italian American Legal Defense and Higher Education Fund. In 1992, he successfully sued The City University of New York for discrimination against in the landmark lawsuit, Scelsa v. CUNY. Phil was Chief Counsel for the Bronx Special Olympics, a founding member of the Italian American Museum where he served as Executive Vice President, past president of the Columbus Alliance, director of the Bronx Columbus Day Parade Committee and treasurer of the Child Reach Foundation.

Phil has taught law and government courses at Lehman College, Westchester Community College and Berkeley College. He was a guest commentator on Court TV.