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of the marketing-to-women puzzle, smart law firms will recognize this is not a gender issue, it's a business is- sue, explains Cooke. "When you arm the minority of your firm — because, when you look at the partnership level in law firms, you only have 20 per cent women — to deal with one of the largest untapped markets, you're not thinking about it as a business imperative, you're genderizing the issue. You really want to arm all of the lawyers in your law firm to understand what women clients want." Cooke says while men and women should be seen as equals, they shouldn't be viewed as being the same. It's key to know and understand the ways in which men and women differ in their commu- nication styles, decision-making, social- izing, etc. "You don't paint it pink. What you really need to do is train your law- yers to understand what are those fun- damental differences towards approach- ing business that men and women have. And that's what the lawyers need to un- derstand. We're talking about market- ing. It's so easy to get confused and say, 'This is a gender issue; this is a political- correctness thing.' It has nothing to do with that. This is a new market that peo- ple are trying to understand. Once you understand how the market segment thinks, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman." Cooke says law firms aren't fully get- ting it and may underestimate the size and scope of the women's market seg- ment. Aside from the women who have moved in-house from law firms, women lead 60 per cent of all new start-up com- panies, and by 2010 one million women will own a small business, according to a CIBC report on women entrepreneurs. One firm that has paid attention to these statistics is Lang Michener LLP. Carol Lyons, a partner at the Toronto of- fice, explains it has an informal women's group that aims to promote its female associates and develop ways to market to female clients. Lyons — like most others interviewed for this article — is reticent when asked in depth about the firm's particular efforts. Lang Michener's web site has a page devoted to services for female entrepreneurs and touts it as "a cross-disciplinary practice group spe- cifically targeted to meeting the needs of women entrepreneurs. Our lawyers provide personalized, practical and cost- efficient legal advice tailored to the busi- women clients want." — CRISTI COOKE, MAJORITY MARKETING ness objectives and management style of women entrepreneurs." "We wanted the women at all of our three offices to participate," says Lyons. "We didn't want this to just be a Toronto initiative. By including the other offices, it broadens the base of expertise and ser- vices that we can provide." While Lyons doesn't further expand on the initiative, she says: "I don't want to give away any tricks of the trade, but, to be honest, we haven't come up with some kind of pan- acea that's going to rock the world." Cooke says it's important to keep in mind that you can't rely on a spa day or volunteers to create the whole market- ing strategy for your firm. "More people are realizing this, but [law firms] are still behind," she says. "You can't rely on a team of women volunteers in your of- fice to create what really is a business strategy. I don't mean that in a conde- scending way to the women's initiatives; yers in your law firm to understand what "You really want to arm all of the law- I think they can be a wonderful portion of a strategy, but it is a small portion of a strategy. You've got to train everybody in the firm." One firm that has offered firm-wide training on marketing to women is Thackray Burgess, an innovative oil and gas boutique in Calgary. Michael Thack- ray, a shareholder at the firm, says he heard Cooke speak at a conference a few years ago and it occurred to him that the male-heavy firm (as it was at the time) was ignoring how to attract and retain fe- male lawyers. He invited Cooke to run an in-house seminar on these issues, as well as on the topic of marketing to women. "More and more female general counsel, more and more women are making deci- sions as to who to use [for legal services]. Ignore the females at your peril in Cal- gary. Just as a word to the wise," he says. Thackray Burgess launched an inter- nal women's group in 2006, and Cooke helped the firm define its mandate and terms of reference. "It's been hugely successful," says Thackray, who reports there are now almost as many women as men at the firm. Cooke says a blend of female-client events and firm-wide initiatives to help understand the market segment will help; however, "a women's going to choose you if you're a good lawyer. If you're the best lawyer she can find, if you communicate in her language, if you understand her time pressures, and if you can under- stand how she makes decisions." She says one industry that is getting it right is home-improvement companies. "They're hugely picking up on the wom- en's market, but they don't paint it pink," Cooke says. "They don't rely on having women's golf games to sell home-im- provement products. They widened their aisles, they cleaned up their stores, they started training their people that women actually make the majority of decisions when it comes to home im- provement, and they've seen their profits increase unbelievably." www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2008 31