Mr. Starnes is the Executive Chairman of ProAssurance Corporation, having served as its Chief Executive Officer from 2007 to 2019. He is a 1969 graduate of the College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Alabama. He received a law degree, summa cum laude, in 1972 from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. In 1975, along with his father, he founded and ultimately became the Senior and Managing Partner of the law firm now known as Starnes Davis Florie. He practiced law until 2006, then assumed the position of President, Corporate Planning and Administration, with Brasfield and Gorrie LLC, one of the nation鈥檚 leading commercial contractors. In 2007, he joined ProAssurance. He has been elected a fellow of the America College of Trial Lawyers and a fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation. He was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Alabama Supreme Court on the Rules of Civil Procedure from 1984 until 2007, serving as Chairman from 1998 to 2007.
He is a member of a variety of professional and civic organizations. He is a lifelong resident of Birmingham and a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Birmingham Business Alliance. He serves on a number of other business and charitable Boards. In 2018 he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, an organization created by the legislature of Alabama with membership limited to 100 living Alabamians.