HUBBELL'S GROWING WEB

Whenever the list of Bill Clinton's Best Friends is put together, Webb Hubbell's name is always near the top. Clinton installed his golfing buddy and confidant as Associate Attorney General in 1993; at the Justice Department he could serve as the First Family's eyes and ears. Hubbell resigned in March 1994 amid allegations that he had bilked his clients and partners out of thousands of dollars at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he once worked with Mrs. Clinton. By August 1995, Clinton's close friend was in jail, serving 21 months for fraud.

But between his tenure at the Justice Department and his time at the Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Maryland, Hubbell tried to open a little Washington law practice. Almost immediately, work began trickling in. First he was hired by Indonesia's Lippo Group, which reportedly offered him $250,000 a year for work that remains a mystery. Next, at the suggestion of a Democratic fund raiser, the Los Angeles Airport Commission paid him $8,250 a month to lobby the Transportation Department. These were lucky breaks for a lawyer facing possible criminal charges. Republicans have wondered aloud whether these jobs were part of a "hush-money" campaign directed by the White House to keep Hubbell happy and dissuade him from telling investigators what he knows about the Whitewater affair. Now it seems that independent counsel Kenneth Starr wonders the same thing.

The latest Hubbell client to surface is Time Warner (the parent company of TIME magazine). A company executive confirmed to TIME last week that the corporation employed Hubbell briefly as a consultant in the fall of 1994. Starr issued a subpoena last month to Time Warner, asking for the records of Hubbell's employment. The company hired Hubbell after one of its outside lobbyists, longtime Democratic consultant Michael Berman, approached Hubbell about doing some legal work in the antitrust area. According to Berman, Hubbell was game, and so Berman then mentioned the idea to Tim Boggs, Time Warner's Washington representative. Not long afterward, Hubbell himself called Boggs and offered his legal services directly. Peter Haje, Time Warner's executive vice president and general counsel, approved Hubbell's contract.

During the following month, Hubbell consulted with Time Warner's lawyers on a single antitrust issue involving the company's cable operations. He attended two meetings in New York but did not contact anyone in the government on the company's behalf, according to a Time Warner executive. Hubbell earned $5,000 for a month's work and ended the relationship when he learned in late November that he was the target of a criminal investigation. In early December 1994 he pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion.