Click on linked names to read about other key players, or see the full list.

A combative lawyer with a slight Southern drawl, Mickey Kantor, 58, left the administration a year ago after serving as U.S. trade representative and commerce secretary.

But in January, President Clinton hired Kantor and his Chicago firm – Mayer, Brown & Platt – to help Clinton attorney David Kendall handle matters relating to independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of allegations related to Monica Lewinsky. (Attorney Robert Bennett's concentration remained on the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit.)

Kantor, an old and trusted friend of both the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton, brings political, as well as legal, skills to the president's team of lawyers.

• A Confidant for Every Crisis (Jan. 29, 1998)

(Updated October 2, 1998)