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EARLY LIFE Kenneth Starr was born in Vernon, Texas in 1946 , the son of a Church Of Christ Minister and part time Barber . He first attended Harding University but transferred to George Washington University where he received his B.A in 1968. Starr spent some time working for the Southwestern Company at this time. He later attended Brown University ( M.A , 1969) and Duke University ( J.D. , 1973). After his graduation from Duke, he became a clerk for 5th Federal Circuit Court Judge David W. Dyer (1973-74), then for Chief Justice Warren Burger (1975-77). He joined the staff of the Los Angeles-based law firm Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in 1977 , working out of their Washington office. He was appointed counselor to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith in 1981 . PRE-INDEPENDENT COUNSEL ACTIVITIES Prior to his appointment as Independent Counsel, Starr had been a federal Judge on the D.C. Circuit Court Of Appeals from 1983 to 1989 and was United States Solicitor General from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush . As a judge, Starr was respected by both political parties and was considered to be a moderate conservative with a broad view of freedom of the press. Before his tenure as independent counsel, he was often mentioned as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Starr also considered running for the United States Senate from Virginia in 1994 against incumbent Chuck Robb , but deferred to fellow Republican Oliver North . TIME AS INDEPENDENT COUNSEL Whitewater In , who had been specially appointed by the Attorney General prior to the re-enactment of the Independent Counsel law. His powers were very broad, and he was given the right to Subpoena nearly anyone he felt may have information relevant to the several scandals he was charged with investigating. Vince Foster On October 10, 1997, Starr's Report on the Death of deputy White House counsel, Vince Foster , authored by Starr's deputy Brett Kavanaugh was released to the public by the three-judge panel of the Special Division of the U.S. court of appeals. Alleged Misconduct Though his judicial reputation earned him initial popularity in the investigation, particularly after his aggressive emphasis on confronting political corruption in Arkansas - culminating in the successful fraud prosecution of then-sitting Arkansas Governor '', alleges that Starr's office pressured her to lie under oath in order to back up its allegations against Clinton. The now-defunct monthly magazine '' Brill's Content '' accused Starr's office of leaking grand jury testimony in violation of the Federal Rules Of Criminal Procedure . Acting on motions of Clinton defense attorneys, US District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ordered an investigation into whether Starr's office had leaked grand jury information to the press (July 1998). Starr's office responded that the information alleged to have been leaked was not uniquely available to it, but was also possessed by Clinton's lawyers, who monitored the grand jury through witnesses' lawyers participation in a joint defense arrangement, and who may have strategically leaked it in order to neutralize the damage and at the same time to blame Starr. Starr also contended that much of the most damaging evidence against the President, including the results of his blood test had not been known by Clinton's lawyers and had not leaked. The federal appeals court in Washington determined that Judge Johnson had improperly applied circuit precedent, and reversed the district judge's decision to allow Clinton attorneys to investigate alleged leaks. After an investigation conducted by a court appointed Special Master, it was determined that there was no evidence that Starr's office had leaked grand jury information. Nonetheless, public confidence in Starr's operation was damaged. Charles Bakaly, spokesman for Starr's office, resigned (March 11, 1999) on leak allegations, but was later acquitted (Oct 6, 2000). Starr's investigation eventually led to the politically charged impeachment of President Clinton, with whom Starr shared '' Time Magazine's '' Man Of The Year designation for 1998 . President Clinton was acquitted on both articles of impeachment by the Senate and continued to serve the rest of his term. RESENTMENT Starr expressed regret for ever having agreed to the Justice Department 's request that he oversee the Lewinsky investigation, saying "the most fundamental thing that could have been done differently" would have been for somebody else to have investigated the matter. {Link without Title} POST-INDEPENDENT COUNSEL ACTIVITIES After five years as independent counsel, Starr resigned and returned to private practice as an appellate lawyer and a visiting professor at the George Mason University School Of Law . Starr is now a partner at Kirkland And Ellis , specializing in litigation. He is one of the lead attorneys in a class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition of liberal and conservative groups (including the ACLU and the NRA ) against the regulations created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known informally as McCain - Feingold Act. In the case, Starr has argued that the law is an unconstitutional abridgement of free speech. On April 6 , 2004 , he was appointed Dean of Pepperdine University 's School of Law . He was originally offered this post in 1996 , however he withdrew from the appointment in 1998 after the Lewinsky controversy erupted and required his full-time attention. Critics charged that there was a conflict of interest due to substantial donations to Pepperdine from billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife , a Clinton critic who funded many media outlets attacking the president. In 2004, several years after President Clinton's impeachment, Starr was again offered the Pepperdine deanship and this time accepted it. Starr often refers to the years of the Clinton and Whitewater Investigations as the "unpleasant years." Anti-Death Penalty In 2005, Starr worked to overturn the Death Sentence of Robin Lovitt , who was on Virginia 's Death Row for Murder ing a man during a Robbery in 1998. Starr provided his services to Lovitt '' Pro Bono ''. On October 3 , 2005 , the Supreme Court denied Certiorari . (Lovitt was granted clemency and had his sentence commuted to life in prison without parole, on November 29 , 2005 , by Governor Mark Warner of Virginia.) On {Link without Title} . REFERENCES
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