Halfway through a BarkerGilmore panel on how to become a general counsel, after yet another slide listing the godlike character traits desired by some companies, panelist Laura Stevens deftly read the room.

“Don’t be intimidated,” said Stevens, who became a first-time general counsel with educational publisher Cengage Group in 2018. To have the requisite experience and qualities in some job listings, “you’d have to be 250 years old,” she joked.