Now that she's been noticed offically by blawgers like Matt Homann (the (non)billable hour) and Dennis Kennedy (denniskennedy.blog), I feel free to suggest that lawyers everywhere, male and female, should get to know Yvonne DiVita.
Yvonne was a guest on Matt's premier "Five by Five" feature. She and four other women (all five are marketing experts with, as Dennis put it, "excellent blogs" of their own) offered some great insights on the five worst/best things lawyers can do to market their practices to women.
What's this got to do with KM or information design, you ask?
Well, a couple of posts back, I talked about "Client-facing Knowledge Management." One ultimate goal of building KM systems should be the development of new, innovative products and services for your clients. These should include lawyer/client relationship-building services. And there we are, back to marketing.
Information design? Um, forgive me, but ... DUH!!! Organization, typefaces, layout, use of information graphics, incorporating multimedia — all are critical to delivering your new KM-based products and services effectvely.
Back to Yvonne and how her insights can help you. More and more of your clients will be women. Or will be organizations owned, or operated, or managed, by women. Get used to it. 
I wrote an article for Yvonne's Web site recently discussing the World Summit on the Information Society and its commitment to “ensuring that the Information Society enables women's empowerment and their full participation…” In it I noted examples from Carly Fiorina and her HP executive team to a young Vietnamese woman-entrepreneur, Luu Nguyen Tra Giang, using the internet to market fruit in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Would you like to represent women like these? Or the companies they run?
Figuring out how to relate to women should be a high-priority strategic goal for lawyers. What better starting point than to ask women who have been asking other women?
In her Five by Five contribution, one of the "worst mistakes" Yvonne wrote about was:
2. Passing out flyers that have only men's pictures on them or heavily promote the executives in your firm--who all happen to be male! Or, looking around us for the 'man' in our lives.The same problems could affect (or maybe "infect" is the right word) your Web site, you client extranet interface, your e-mail communications, your KM-based client update service, and on and on.
On the positive side, Yvonne gave us several insights that translate well to the kinds of KM-based client initiatives you should be aiming toward:
3. Follow the lead of banks and offer specific programs aimed at women. Develop workshops for women entrepreneurs, for widows, for women entering into business partnerships, for single Moms, etc.The possibilities for applying these nuggets to law firm sponsored materials, online services, and events should be jumping off the screen at you. Imagine a blog featuring the small business lawyers in your firm engaging local women entrepreneurs in discussions of legal and business issues (look at Matt's blog for inspiration). The possibilities seem quite limitless. Get creative. Innovate. (More of how KM fits in here.)
4. Expand your marketing focus to women in all walks of life. Approach women executives differently than you would approach stay at home Moms ... do this by having separate marketing materials that speak to the individual's needs. Notice how financial firms have separate marketing materials for each service they offer, and they portray men and women together and separately.
. . . .
6. Market 'couple' seminars or workshops to women not men. Show women and men together. Real life consists of real people, both male and female. Use the word partner ... partnerships exist between couples, married, engaged, or merely cohabitating, and partnerships also exist between you and the clients you serve, making this word a powerful introduction to a long-term relationship.
You might notice that Yvonne could not stop herself at five positive items. After you check out the others on Matt's blog, you should have an appetite for more. Subscirbe to her blog. Buy her new book, 
Now for the "full-disclosure" part: The reason I haven't written about Yvonne or her book previously is that she's my fiance. As Dennis wrote in his post, the ideas and advice these women presented in Matt's feature "are fantastic and deserve a wide audience." (Emphasis added.) I didn't want my enthusiastic endorsement to be discounted because of our relationship. She connected with Matt independently (as she does most everything!). I knew she was going to be included and generally what she intended to write. I hoped the message would attract an audience. But it was not until Dennis' post showed up in my Bloglines feed that I felt comfortable adding my voice.
Matt should be commended for focusing on these issues and gathering such a strong and talented group of women for the launch of his new Five by Five feature. (Check out his preview of the topic and guests for the second edition, coming this week.)
Bottom line: Women clients are in your future. They'll be strong, smart women. They'll be watching how you and your firm relate to them. Deal with it.
[And yes, those are Yvonne's eyes watching you above.]
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