Biography

A prolific scholar of labor and discrimination law, William B. Gould IV has been an influential voice on worker-management relations for over forty years and recently served as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. Professor Gould has been a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators since 1970 and has arbitrated and mediated more than 200 labor disputes, including the 1992 and 1993 salary disputes between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee. He currently serves as independent Monitor for FirstGroup America, addressing freedom of association complaints.

A critically acclaimed author of nine books and more than sixty law review articles, Professor Gould’s work includes his historical record of the experiences of his great-grandfather in Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor, and his own Washington story, Labored Relations: Law, Politics and the NLRB: A Memoir.

Professor Gould is the recipient of five honorary doctorates for his significant contributions in the fields of labor law and labor relations. Before joining the Stanford Law School Faculty in 1972, he was a professor of law at Wayne State Law School and was an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, as well as for United Auto Workers.

Key Works

• William B. Gould IV, Kissing Cousins?: The Federal Arbitration Act and Modern Labor Arbitration, 55 Emory Law Journal 609
• William B. Gould, IV, Labor Issues in Professional Sports: Reflections on Baseball, Labor, and Antitrust Law (Symposium: Sports and the Law), 15 Stanford Law and Policy Review 61-98.
• William B. Gould, IV, The Idea of the Job as Property in Contemporary America: The Legal and Collective Bargaining Framework, 1986 Brigham Young University Law Review 895-918.
• William B. Gould IV, Japan’s Reshaping of American Labor Law, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984.
• William B. Gould IV, On Labor Injunctions Pending Arbitration: Recasting Buffalo Forge, 30 Stanford Law Review 533
• William B. Gould IV, Black Workers in White Unions: Job Discrimination in the United States, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977.
• William B. Gould IV, Taft-Hartley Comes to Great Britain: Observations on the Industrial Relations Act of 1971, 81 Yale Law Journal 1421 (1972).
• William B. Gould IV, Black Power in the Unions: The Impact Upon Collective Bargaining Relationships, 79 Yale Law Journal 46.

In the News

• NFL Owners: Cap Not Absolutely Necessary
  American Business Daily, April 14, 2008
• Profs Advise '08 Candidates
  The Stanford Daily, February 05, 2008
• Professors Praise Obama
  The Stanford Daily, January 31, 2008
• Veteran Labor Lawyer Takes On New Challenge
  San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 2008
• Nation's Largest School Bus Firm Hires Monitor For Unionization Effort
  Chicago Tribune, January 18, 2008

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Labor Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• William B. Gould IV, Labor and Employment Arbitration, in American Arbitration Practice, New York: Practising Law Institute, forthcoming 2008.
• William B. Gould IV, Industrial Relations and the Law, in New Directions in the Study of Work and Employment: Revitalizing Industrial Relations as an Academic Enterprise, Charles J. Whalen, ed., Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2008.
• William B. Gould IV, LERA and Industrial Relations in the United States, 11 Perspectives on Work 6 (Winter 2008).
• William B. Gould IV, Globalization in Collective Bargaining, Baseball, and Matsuzaka: Labor and Antitrust Law on the Diamond, 28 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 283 (Winter 2007).
• William B. Gould IV, Resurgence of the Red Sox Parallels Success of the Game, San Jose Mercury News, November 6, 2007, pg. 14A.
• William B. Gould IV, Independent Adjudication, Political Process, and the State of Labor-Management Relations: The Role of the National Labor Relations Board, 82 Indiana Law Journal 461 (2007).
• William B. Gould IV, Memorial to William R. Stewart, 82 Indiana Law Journal 453 (2007).
• William B. Gould, IV, Black Player Jackie Robinson's Influence Still Noticeable Today, San Jose Mercury News, April 15, 2007, p. 5P.
• William B Gould, IV, Jackie Robinson: A Legacy Greater than a Game, HOFMAG.com, April 2007.
• William B. Gould IV, Workers Deserve Free Choice, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 7, 2007.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member (1970-Present), National Academy of Arbitrators
• Member (1994-1996), Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States
• Chairman (1994-1998), National Labor Relations Board