Robert J Stark

Practice Areas

Robert Stark is chair of the Firm’s Bankruptcy & Corporate Restructuring Practice Group. Robert focuses his practice on complex corporate restructuring, including in-court Chapter 11 cases and out-of-court workouts. He has extensive experience representing debtors/borrowers, secured and unsecured creditors, official creditor/equity committees, and other significant parties-in-interest in large corporate insolvency matters.

Robert led the Firm’s representation in the following significant case matters (among many others):

- Debtors/Borrowers: Allied Systems Holdings (special committee of the Board); Centrix Financial (primary stockholder, chairman and CEO); GIC Portfolio (out-of-court workout); Keys Resort (Chapter 11 debtor); Sable Permian Resources (equity sponsor); SunEdison (special litigation counsel); Wells Dairy/Blue Bunny Ice Cream (out-of-court workout).

- Secured Lenders/Bondholders: Atlantis Resort and Casino; American Safety Razor; EPV Solar; Evergreen International Aviation; Flying J/Big West Oil; Geokinetics; Hawkeye Renewables; JCPenney; J.Crew; Le-Nature’s; Millennium Labs; Minnesota Star Tribune; Newark Group; New Vision Broadcasting; Pier 1 Imports; Rockdale Marcellus; ServiceMaster; Spansion; Sports Authority; Synagro Technologies; TOUSA; Vanguard Natural Resources.

- Unsecured Bondholders/Creditors: Advanced Lighting; C-BASS; CEDC; Ceruzzi Properties; Collins & Aikman; Colt Defense; Delphi Corporation; Delta Petroleum; Endeavour International; Energy Conversion Devices; Falcon Products; Forest Oil/Sabine Oil & Gas; InSight Health Services; Intelsat; LightSquared; McDermott International; Orexigen; Patriot Coal; SIRVA/North American Van Lines; TerraVia; TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals; Tribune Company.

- Official Creditor/Equity Committees: Alta Mesa Resources; Aralez Pharmaceuticals; Basic Energy Services; Briggs & Stratton; Chesapeake Energy; Dolan Company; EdgeMarc Energy; EXCO Resources; Fedders; Green Field Energy Services; Green Valley Ranch Hotel and Casino; Legacy Reserves; Libbey Glass; Lionel Trains (special counsel); LTL Management/Johnson & Johnson (co-lead); Motor Coach Industries; Oakwood Homes Corporation; Oneida; Performance Sports Group; Philadelphia Energy Solutions; Ravn Air Group; Rex Energy; Revlon; Riverstone Networks; Ruby Pipeline; School Specialty; Ultra Petroleum; Visteon Corporation; Washington Prime Group.

- Preferred Stockholders: Spanish Broadcasting; Washington Mutual.

- Examiner: Cred Inc.

- Post-Confirmation Litigation/Liquidation Trusts: Bethlehem Steel; Bricolage Capital; Geneva Steel; Green Field Energy Services; Hayes Lemmerz International; Le-Nature’s; Millennium Labs; Oakwood Homes Corporation; Performance Sports Group; and WCI Communities.

Robert is cited in Benchmark Litigation (“National Bankruptcy Star”), Best Lawyers in America (multiple categories), Chambers Global (top 40 bankruptcy lawyers in the United States), Chambers USA (top 30 bankruptcy lawyers in the United States), Euromoney's Expert Guides ("Best of the Best USA"), Global M&A Network: Top 100 Restructuring Professionals (top 50 bankruptcy lawyers in the United States), IFLR1000 (“Highly Regarded”), Lawdragon (“Leading Global Lawyer”), Lawdragon 500 ("Leading U.S. Bankruptcy and Restructuring Lawyer"), Legal 500 US (“Leading Lawyer”), Litigation Counsel of America (“Senior Fellow”), Super Lawyers, PLC Which Lawyer, and Who’s Who Legal (“Thought Leader”). He was described in the 2022 edition of Chambers Global as “extremely knowledgeable and very strategic.” The 2022 edition of Legal 500 US included the following client quote: Robert “is ALWAYS my first call when I am working on a restructuring situation.” In a 2021 profile published by LevFin Insights, Robert was described as having a “hard-nosed, no-nonsense reputation, tempered with a penchant for deal making,” which has “made him a go-to lifeline in complex chapter 11 cases for a wide range of parties.” He was profiled a second time in a 2011 article published by the National Law Journal entitled, “Winning: Successful Litigators. Powerful Strategies.” In 2010, he was profiled a third time by Bloomberg/BusinessWeek, wherein he was described as a litigation "serial killer" but also “bottom-line and commercial oriented.” Robert has received numerous “Deal of the Year” citations (domestic and international) in connection with his case work, including awards presented by the IFLR (two times), Turnaround Management Association (two times), and the M&A Advisor (multiple times). In 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2011, he was one of 12 attorneys nationwide named to the annual list of “Outstanding Restructuring Lawyers” published by Turnarounds & Workouts and, in five prior years, he was one of 12 attorneys nationwide named to that publication’s annual list of “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers.” In 2011, Robert was named “Restructuring Lawyer of the Year” at the Turnaround Atlas Awards.

Robert’s “first chair” trial and appellate work have resulted in opinions of high precedential value, including (among many others): In re Visteon Corp., 612 F.3d 210 (3rd Cir. 2010) (described by a leading legal commentator as “the most important [Section] 1114 case ever rendered"); In re Oakwood Homes Corp., 449 F.3d 588 (3rd Cir. 2006); In re TSAWD Holdings, Inc., 565 B.R. 292 (Bankr. D. Del. 2017); In re Millennium Lab Holdings II, LLC, 2016 WL 7048599 (Bankr. D. Del. 2016); In re Green Field Energy Services, Inc., 2015 WL 5146161 (Bankr. D. Del. 2015); In re School Specialty, Inc., 2013 WL 1838513 (Bankr. D. Del. 2013); In re Patriot Coal Corp., 482 B.R. 718 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2012); In re Eastman Kodak Co., 2012 WL 2501071 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2012); In re Tribune Company, 2011 Bankr. Lexis 4128 (Bankr. D. Del. 2011); In re Washington Mutual, Inc., 442 B.R. 314 (Bankr. D. Del. 2011); In re Spansion, Inc., 421 B.R. 151 (Bankr. D. Del. 2009); In re Oakwood Homes Corp., 394 B.R. 352 (Bankr. D. Del. 2008); In re Oneida Ltd., 351 B.R. 79 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2006); and OHC Liquidation Trust v. U.S. Fire Ins. Co., 2006 WL 2578907 (Bankr. D. Del. 2006).

Robert has published extensively on insolvency and restructuring topics. He is a contributing editor of the nation’s leading treatise on restructuring law, Collier on Bankruptcy (LexisNexis 2020). He was the lead editor of two other legal treatises, Contested Valuation in Corporate Bankruptcy (LexisNexis 2011) and Admitting Expert Valuation Evidence Before the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts (Bernstein, S., et al., Amer. Bankr. Inst. 2017). He wrote or co-wrote chapters for three other treatises, Fiduciary Obligations in Business (Cambridge University Press 2022), Collier Bankruptcy Practice Guide (LexisNexis 2020), and Bankruptcy Business Acquisitions (Amer. Bankr. Inst. 2006). He wrote or co-wrote articles appearing in, among other academic periodicals, the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, Business Lawyer, California Law Review, and Journal of Corporation Law, which have been quoted/cited in trial and appellate court decisions and in the published writings of leading legal scholars. His most recent law review article (co-written with Harvard Law School Professor Jared Ellias), “Bankruptcy Hardball,” was selected by law school faculty around the country as among the “Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2020.”

Robert frequently speaks on complex restructuring topics. He was invited to guest lecture student classes at Boston College Carroll School of Management, Boston University Law School, Columbia Business School, Georgia State University Law School, Harvard Law School, NYU Stern School of Business, UC Berkeley Law School, UC Hastings Law School, University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, and Vanderbilt Law School. He also was an invited speaker at restructuring symposiums sponsored by (among many others), the American Bankruptcy Institute, American Law Institute, Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, Beard Group, Dallas Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the University of Texas School of Law.