Former game show host Bob Eubanks made his way into Indiana's corporate counsel world February 23, grilling attorneys and general counsel teams with questions about their relationships and communication habits.
As the special guest star, Eubanks welcomed about 120 attendees to the Indiana chapter of the [Association of Corporate Counsel America] event at The Mansion at Oak Hill in Carmel. He joined Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Joie Chitwood to speak to the legal and corporate crowd.
This is the first time the ACC has done anything like this, according to spokesperson Norm Wain, who is vice president of legal affairs and an assistant general counsel for The Finish Line.
"I haven't seen this many lawyers in the same room since the day after the Formula One," Chitwood said, referring to the 2005 F-1 debacle.
After Chitwood, Eubanks paired up five teams of corporate general counsel and senior partners from five host law firms - Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, Barnes & Thornburg, Bingham McHale, Krieg DeVault, and Locke Reynolds.
On a stage, the group launched into a 30-minute exercise called the Not So Newlywed Game, designed after the popular game show that Eubanks hosted in varying forms for 16 years. Eubanks asked questions that reflected the realities of in-house practice and relationships with outside counsel.
The attorney pairs were: Charles Baldwin of Ogletree Deakins and Jonathan West, general counsel for Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis; Joe Hogsett of Bingham McHale and C.W. Raines III, associate general counsel for Aearo Technologies; Ken Yerkes of Barnes & Thornburg and Gary Cohen, general counsel for The Finish Line; Jeff McDermott of Krieg DeVault and Kathleen Burns, general counsel at Klipsch Audio Technologies, and Alan Brown of Locke Reynolds and Karla Elliott, general counsel at Eagle Adjusting Services.
Questions ranged from most annoying habits, who they'd need to resemble to look better, what makes the law firm look most attractive, what upsets the other person, and what each pair considered ugly about the other. Some answers were common among the group, such as overbilling being dubbed unattractive and annoying.
When asked what he considered ugly, Yerkes responded with stupid judges, while Elliott said non-competes made her upset. Neither of their partner attorneys got the answers correct.
Team Cohen and Yerkes won the game with 40 points. The raffle winner of a weeklong trip to Cancun: C.W. Raines III.
After the show, Eubanks said this was first time he had hosted his Not So Newlywed Game specifically for attorneys.
"I haven't done anything with attorneys except pay them," Eubanks said. But it was fun, and the lawyer answers got a good laugh from everyone.
This article originally appeared in the Indiana Lawyer.