Richard Bockman - Investigator

Richard Bockman joined the James Hoyer Law Firm in 2011, after working as an editor at the St. Petersburg Times for 20 years and as Investigative Editor for his last seven years there.

It was an unlikely career choice, given his early interests. Richard liked the Russian language and Russian literature so much he got his undergraduate degree in Russian area studies from the University of California at Berkeley. It took him all of about a week of grad school at the University of Michigan to figure out he wanted to drop out of the PhD program in Slavic languages and literature and try something more practical. That’s how he fell into journalism.

Having earned a master’s in journalism in Ann Arbor, Richard got a job covering Tampa police for the afternoon Tampa Times, which still sold for only 10 cents when he started there in 1979. It was the beginning of more than 30 years as a reporter and editor, 10 with the Tampa Times and Tampa Tribune, and 20 with the St. Petersburg Times. During those early days decades ago, he covered the firm’s founding partners Bill James and Chris Hoyer when they were the U.S. Attorney’s Organized Crime Strike Force. He also covered James’ winning campaign for Hillsborough State Attorney.

In Richard’s job as investigative editor at the St. Pete Times, he edited reporters who uncovered a fake Navy Veterans charity that defrauded Americans of tens of millions of dollars; the “Taj Mahal’’ courthouse in Tallahassee that cost taxpayers $50 million; and abuses in the state’s $140 billion pension fund.

Now he helps tell stories of fraud uncovered by investigators and lawyers at the James, Hoyer law firm. Richard lives with his wife and two sons in Tampa. He is addicted to old TV shows (like the Rockford Files) on Netflix.