Over the last 18 months, I participated in a series of one-day regional symposiums incorporated into the Women, Influence & Power in Law framework. This initiative, known as Project 5/165, is designed to provide tools that aid women in-house counsel on the path to becoming general counsel in Fortune 500 companies. In breakout sessions, participants role-played a business simulation with sitting general counsel acting as a CEO. The topic of “executive presence” came up in almost every session, and no one could define the term with precision.

Why executive presence?