Assembly Minority Conference Leader Christopher DePhillips is departing RLDatix Life Sciences to become an equity partner in a North Jersey law firm that will be known as Bernstein DePhillips & Kalosieh.
DePhillips joined Porzio Life Sciences as chief operating officer and general counsel in 2016; the company had been a wholly owned subsidiary of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman and became a market leader in compliance solutions for the life science industry. The company was sold to RLDatix in 2022.
DePhillips, a four-term lawmaker from Bergen County, will now be part of a firm that includes former Allendale Mayor Ari Bernstein, now the municipal court judge in Wyckoff and Oradell, and Joseph Kalosieh, who heads the estates and trusts practice at the firm. Former Superior Court Judge Edward Torack is of counsel at the firm.
“After seven great years in-house, I am excited to get back into private practice. My friends, Ari Bernstein, Joe Kalosieh, and Ed Torack, have been a force in Bergen County legal circles for decades,” DePhillips said. “They are all tremendous lawyers and even better people. I look forward to working with them to grow the firm and take Bernstein DePhillips & Kalosieh to new heights.”
An original partner of the firm, Robert Landel, left last summer to become a Superior Court judge.
Before joining Porzio Life Sciences, DePhillips was a partner at Gibbons and Porzio Bromberg & Newman. A graduate of Georgetown University and Seton Hall Law School, DePhillips worked as a congressional aide to Rep. Marge Roukema (R-Ridgewood) and as a township committeeman and mayor in Wyckoff. He was elected to the Assembly in 2017 and has rapidly ascended through the leadership ranks.
DePhillips’s move is effective next week.