WACO—Kenneth W. Starr, an attorney and academician best known as the independent counsel whose investigation led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, reportedly has been elected president of Baylor University.
The Texas Tribune website released an unconfirmed announcement Sunday night, reporting Starr would be the Baptist school’s 14th president. Television stations statewide picked up the story Monday morning.
A Baylor spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
If the story is accurate, Starr would succeed John Lilley, who was fired for failing to “bring the Baylor family together” in July 2008. Lilley’s two-year tenure followed the 10-year presidency of Robert Sloan, which was marked by discord over the university’s future, specifically Baylor 2012, a decade-long strategy plan. David Garland, dean of Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary, has been interim president since August 2008.
Since 2004, Starr has been the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. He also is affiliated with the Kirkland and Ellis law firm, where he was a partner from 1993 to 2004.
He was U.S. solicitor general from 1989 to 1993. He was a U.S. circuit judge for the District of Columbia circuit from 1981 to 1983.
From 1994 to 1999, he was independent counsel for five investigations, including the death of White House counsel Vince Foster, the Whitewater real estate dealings of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
His investigation resulted in the Starr Report, which asserted Clinton lied about his affair with Lewinsky in a sworn deposition. That allegation led to Clinton’s impeachment.
Starr is a native Texan, born July 21, 1946, in Vernon and raised in San Antonio. His father was a Church of Christ pastor, and Pepperdine is a Church of Christ school.
He is a graduate of George Washington University, Brown University and Duke University Law School.
Early in his career, he clerked for Fifth Circuit Judge David Dyer and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger.
He is the author of more than 25 publications, including First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life.