William B. Gould IV (born July 16, 1936) is an American lawyer currently the Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus at

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

. Gould was the first black professor at Stanford Law School. Gould was born on July 16, 1936, in Boston, Massachusetts to William B. Gould III and Leah F. Gould. He grew up in Long Branch, New Jersey. Gould attended the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

and then Cornell Law School. An Episcopalian, he was baptized at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Dedham, Massachusetts and confirmed at St. James in Long Branch. He also served as the Chairman of the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Na ...

from 1994 to 1998. In this position, he helped to negotiate then end of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. He was responsible for the publication of the diary of his great-grandfather William B. Gould, an escaped slave who served in the Union Navy during the United States Civil War. With his wife, Hilda, he has three sons, William V, Timothy, and Edward.

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* Stanford Law School faculty American lawyers 1936 births Living people University of Rhode Island alumni Cornell Law School alumni 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics Clinton administration personnel National Labor Relations Board officials {{US-law-bio-stub