When Visteon Corp. was spun off from Ford Motor Co. in 2000, the U.S. auto industry was already headed into one of its darkest periods. By May 2009, Visteon, once the nation’s No. 2 auto parts manufacturer, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Friends warned Robert Stark not to get involved. A New York partner at Brown Rudnick specializing in complex corporate restructuring, he was widely known for his work with unsecured creditors. A few months before Visteon’s filing, he was approached by an ad hoc committee of unsecured creditors who had already been told there would be nothing for them. When the filing came, Stark heard from Visteon’s lead counsel, Marc Kieselstein of Kirkland & Ellis.
