Richard Bock to Lead Division of Advice after Jayme Sophir’s Retirement

Washington, D.C. – National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter B. Robb announced the appointment of Richard A. Bock as Associate General Counsel, Division of Advice.  Mr. Bock succeeds Jayme L. Sophir, who will be retiring from the position at the end of July after more than 30 years of dedicated service to the Agency.  The Division of Advice provides guidance to the Agency’s Regional Offices regarding difficult and novel issues arising in the processing of unfair labor practice charges and coordinates the initiation and litigation of injunction proceedings in federal court under Section 10(j) and (l) of the National Labor Relations Act.

Ms. Sophir joined the Division of Advice in 1988 after several years in private practice.  She became a supervisor in 1997, the Regional Advice Branch Chief in 2009, and the Deputy Associate General Counsel in 2012.  In 2017, she was appointed to head the NLRB’s Division of Advice as Associate General Counsel.

According to General Counsel Peter Robb, “Ms. Sophir has been providing me and my predecessors with invaluable advice on important issues and never hesitates to give me her honest appraisal of those issues.  Her sense of humor and dedication have been an inspiration to many.  She will be greatly missed and I thank her for her service.”

Mr. Bock joined the Agency in 1996 as a field attorney in Region 29, Brooklyn.  He became a supervisor there in 2008 before being promoted to Deputy Assistant General Counsel in the Agency’s Division of Operations-Management in 2012.  He subsequently served as Assistant General Counsel in Operations-Management, Deputy Associate General Counsel in the Division of Legal Counsel, and as Deputy Associate General Counsel in Operations-Management.  

“Richard brings a wealth of experience to this position, given his prior positions in Headquarters and in the field,” added General Counsel Robb. “I am looking forward to working with him in his new capacity.”

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employers and employees from unfair labor practices, and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions.  The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year.