About Phil

Phil Cohen represents Hoboken’s 5th Ward on the Hoboken City Council.

At an early age, Phil learned the value of public service from his mother, who served on the Board of Education and Town Council of Livingston, New Jersey, as well as three terms as Mayor.

Phil has lived in Hoboken for 36 years. After graduating from Tufts University and Rutgers Law School, he married Rebecca Kramnick. Phil and Rebecca are proud to have raised their daughters, Madeline 27, and Anna 23, here in Hoboken.

For nearly two decades, Phil has been actively engaged in Hoboken’s civic life. A member of the Citizens Advisory Group for our City’s transformative $230 million federal infrastructure program, he has worked on implementing plans to protect Hoboken from rising tides and superstorms like Sandy. A member of the Hoboken Library’s Space Search Committee, he is seeking to identify an uptown branch location to better serve our community. Phil is a longtime member of the Executive Committee of the Hoboken Democratic Party. For more than a decade, Phil has been elected to serve as a 5th Ward Democratic Committeeman.

As a commissioner who served 8 years on the Hoboken Zoning Board, Phil supported the adaptive reuse of abandoned industrial structures, including the Pilsener Haus project. He also supported initiatives for new uses in the industrial northwest such as the Gravity Vault and the buildings that include the current and future homes of the Mile Square Theatre, as well as the reconstruction of the American Legion Post, including housing for 6 homeless veterans. Phil has also served on the Hoboken Planning Board.

Phil served six years on the Board of Trustees of Stevens Cooperative School, including a term as Board Chair; as a trustee on the Board of the United Synagogue of Hoboken; as a trustee of the Liberty Humane Society; and as a volunteer for the 11th Street Island Association and the Hoboken Historical Museum.

A practicing attorney (and litigator) in the New York office of an international law firm, Phil served 7 years on the Board of Trustees of Family Legal Care (formerly known as Legal Information for Families Today (LIFT)), a not-for-profit organization that annually provides free legal information and legal advice to tens of thousands of economically disadvantaged people navigating New York’s Family Court system. Phil is the recipient of the Corporate Leadership Award from the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation, a Bronx-based anti-poverty non-profit organization.