Kenneth Winston Starr has served as a federal appellate judge and U.S. solicitor general but is most famous for his work as independent counsel investigating the official conduct of President Bill Clinton known as the Whitewater scandal. Starr's 1998 report to the House of Representatives triggered the impeachment of Clinton and his acquittal at a Senate trial in 1999. Starr drew both praise and criticism for his five-year probe of the president.

Starr was born on July 21, 1946 in Vernon, Texas. Starr graduated from George Washington University in 1968 and then earned a master's degree at Brown University, graduating in 1969. He then attended the Duke University Law School, where his distinguished academic record led to his serving as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. After leaving this position in 1976 Starr went to work for a distinguished corporate law firm.

Starr entered public service in 1981 when...