Keri Gould to Lead Law School Pro Bono and Public Service Efforts Gould’s new duties will include developing a robust pro bono program and advising students who engage in service efforts.

By Law Communications
January 18, 2024

Professor Keri Gould, externship director at Washington and Lee University School of Law, began an expanded role this January. With the new title of Director of Externships, Pro Bono, and Public Service, Gould will expand the school’s efforts with regards to pro bono and law-related public service opportunities.

Gould’s new duties will include developing a robust pro bono program, advising students who engage in service efforts, and promoting service opportunities to the student body.

“Our students already serve the community in innumerable ways through work in clinics, externships and other practice-based courses,” said Melanie Wilson, Dean and Roy L. Steinheimer, Jr., Professor of Law. “I am grateful to Professor Gould for taking on this additional responsibility so we can increase our impact in our communities, especially in our region.”

Gould has served as W&L Law’s externship director since joining the school in 2017. She created, and teaches in, the WILF (Working in Law Full-time) Semester, in which law students work full-time in externship placements throughout the country (and occasionally in foreign countries). She also teaches the General Externship course, preparing students for lawyering in the real world through real-life legal opportunities, learning, and reflection. She sees student engagement in pro bono work as an important extension of the curriculum.

“Lawyers are problem-solvers. The new program meets the school’s goal of supporting our students’ growth and development by acknowledging the time they devote to nonacademic opportunities to explore new areas of law, develop lawyering skills, and network with practicing attorneys—all while helping to solve problems in our local communities,” said Gould. “Beyond that, these experiences will instill in our students what we hope will be a career-long commitment to pro bono work.”

Gould joined the Washington and Lee faculty after serving as a visiting professor in the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School and as a Senior Attorney and Attorney-in-Charge of the Sales to Minors Unit, Counsel’s Office, New York State Liquor Authority, as well as an adjunct professor (Advanced Trial Advocacy and Law Practice Management) at Pace Law School. She was also the Assistant Dean for Professional Skills at St. John’s Law School where she directed the Professional Skills Program and created the Center for Professional Skills.

Prior to working at St. John’s, Gould worked as a clinical law professor at Fordham, Hofstra, and New York Law Schools, and an Associate Professor at the University of Utah College of Law. In the years before joining academia, Gould practiced with the Legal Aid Society (Manhattan Criminal Defense Division) and the Mental Hygiene Legal Service (NYS Appellate Division, First Department), where she represented institutionalized psychiatric patients.

Gould graduated from The American University, Washington College of Law and received a BS in Psychology from Union College, Schenectady, NY. She is admitted to the bar of the State of New York, Utah (inactive) and to the US District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the United States Supreme Court.

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