GOULD, MILTON S.

GOULD, MILTON S. (1909–1999), U.S. lawyer. Born in New York City, Gould graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in 1930 and a law degree in 1933. He began practicing law at White & Case in the 1930s, a period in which predominantly Protestant firms tended to exclude Jewish lawyers. When Gould discovered that he would not be allowed to be in contact with clients but would be assigned only research duties, he quit that firm and joined the Jewish law firm Kaufman, Weitzner & Celler, with which he remained in private practice for many years.

In the 1930s he was legislative adviser to the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization and to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the criminal division. From 1935 to 1937 he served under Federal Judge Samuel H. Kaufman as special attorney and special assistant in the U.S. Department of Justice.

In his private practice he specialized in corporate litigation arising under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940, and the Public Utilities Holding Company Act. He was also active in litigation for utility companies.

In 1964 Gould's firm Gallop, Climenko & Gould merged with a Catholic firm run by William Shea, for whom New York City's baseball stadium was later named. Shea and Gould ran the firm together for 20 years, making a point of maintaining a balanced number of Christian and Jewish lawyers. From 1994 on, Gould was a partner at the law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene, & MacRae.

Gould also participated in the prosecution and defense of criminal cases in the federal courts. He especially attracted public notice internationally for his representation of Gen. Ariel Sharon, who sued Time, Inc., for libel, arising out of the Israeli action in Lebanon in the early 1980s, in which the jury's finding was that Sharon had in fact been libeled, although no monetary damages were awarded. A powerful litigator, Gould represented many other high-profile clients, such as Donald Trump, Aristotle Onassis, Aldo Gucci, Abe Beame, David Dinkins, Leona Helmsley, and George Steinbrenner.

Gould served as an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School and at New York Law School, and lectured at the law school of the Hebrew University. He was active for the United Jewish Appeal. He was the author of two books: The Witness Who Spoke with God and Other Tales from the Courthouse (1979); and A Cast of Hawks (1985).

[Milton Ridvas Konvitz /

Ruth Beloff (2^nd ed.)]