Born in Jefferson, Texas, Phillips' father was a veteran of the Confederate States Army.
The family moved to Hillsboro, Texas, where Phillips "attended local schools until the age of fifteen" before spending two years at Bingham Military School in Mebane, North Carolina.
In 1894 he began reading law in the office of Thomas Slater Smith, gaining admission to the bar the following year.
[1] In 1904, Governor S. W. T. Lanham gave Phillips a two-year appointment to a seat on the Eighteenth Judicial District of Texas.
[1] In 1911, Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt appointed Phillips to a seat on the Texas Supreme Court vacated by the resignation of William F. Ramsey.