Editor's Note: This story is adapted from ALM's Mid-Market Report. For more business of law coverage exclusively geared toward midsize firms, sign up for a free trial subscription to ALM's weekly newsletter, The Mid-Market Report.

More than three decades ago, Merle Vaughn graduated from what is now Berkeley Law and went straight to work at Cooley. She liked the firm (and still does), but as a Black woman, she found it wasn't a good situation for her. She wasn't given the same resources to succeed as some of her colleagues—mentorship, a role on the right cases—and within three years, despite a pedigree anyone would envy, she left Big Law.

"Now that I'm a recruiter," said Vaughn, who is managing director and national law firm diversity practice leader at Major, Lindsey & Africa in Los Angeles, "I hear my story over and over and over again. In all these years, very little has changed."

In the midst of protests over police brutality that have opened up a national dialogue about systemic racism, large firms have pledged their time, money and voices to join the fight. But as diversity and retention numbers have shown for years, Big Law has long struggled to offer a hospitable environment to Black attorneys, leading to what Esuga Abaya, who worked at Pepper Hamilton and DLA Piper before joining a small boutique firm, called an "exodus" of Black attorneys, often to in-house roles but sometimes to midsize or smaller firms.

For some Black lawyers, transitioning to a midsize firm offers a more navigable rate structure and opportunities for leadership and professional development that are much harder to find in a larger organization. Smaller firms also offer Black lawyers more opportunity to determine their own careers because, as Abaya said, "the top of the power structure is not as far removed." That can give Black lawyers a sense of agency they might lack in Big Law.

The chief concern prompting Black lawyers to leave Big Law for smaller firms is often billing rates, Vaughn said. Without adequate support from partners, it's a challenge to bring in the types of clients that can pay large-firm rates, making it harder for Black lawyers to meet their firms' lofty expectations. But at a smaller firm, that issue is less likely to surface.

"What can a Black lawyer use to attract those kinds of clients where they can command those kinds of rates?" Vaughn said. "How many Black lawyers just on their own aren't going to have access to those types of clients?"

Abaya said he wanted to use his expertise to help Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs, who often lack the funding or resources to hire the biggest firms.

"Boutique firms provide the flexibility, financial and otherwise, to do things that wouldn't work in a large law firm context," said Abaya, who now works at Growth Counsel, a Philadelphia corporate firm with five attorneys.

In addition to allowing Black lawyers to avoid tension around billing rates, midsize firms often present more opportunities—or at least fewer obstacles on the path to seizing them. If a firm has a gap in expertise in a certain practice area or in a certain office, a lawyer frustrated in their attempts to carve out business in a competitive practice at a big firm may be well-positioned to step right in and deliver for a smaller firm. Vaughn also noted that opportunities to cross-sell within the firm can be attractive.

"What most big firms are lacking—and what Black partners and lawyers are looking for—is an opportunity to be introduced to the firm's clients and help them grow those clients," Vaughn said.

Karol Corbin Walker, who joined 180-lawyer Kaufman Dolowich Voluck in Hackensack, New Jersey, when her former firm, LeClairRyan, folded, garnered interest from large firms when she and her team were looking for a new home. But what mattered most to her was "becoming part of a new firm family," and she found that at Kaufman, where she heads the firm's labor and employment practice.

When minority attorneys move away from Big Law, they aren't necessarily looking for a firm or organization of a specific size, she said. Instead, "it's the people" that make a firm an attractive destination—"and their mindset."

"Of-color attorneys recognize an inviting environment," Walker said. "It's something that's innate. It's in our DNA."

'Onus' on Black Associates

For one Black associate who left an Am Law 100 firm after more than seven years and is now at a smaller firm in New York City, consistently positive reviews and a strong work ethic weren't enough to stick in Big Law. Like so many other Black lawyers, she struggled with sponsorship.

"The attorneys that seemed to be in my corner didn't seem to have much pull," said the lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her career. "They had pull until I was starting to be considered for counsel and partnership roles, at which point they lost all power."

She said that as she attempted to break into trademark law, "there were a lot of walls put up" by the firm and its partners that prevented her from charting the course she had intended. And while she said she has too much faith in people to believe the obstacles were solely because of her race, she learned after leaving that a white associate who used to ask her for work managed to ease her way into the trademark group and develop important connections with clients.

This lawyer also recalled a meeting in which a group of mostly Black attorneys shared with their firm's female chair some of the challenges they faced, only to be met with a lack of understanding.

"We were told in no uncertain terms that the onus was on the Black associates to claw our way into the inner circles or the all-boys' clubs," she said.

She was surprised by the response, especially knowing how important affinity can be in forming the types of relationships that can help an attorney flourish at a large firm.

"It's just up to us to be exceptional," she said.

At her current firm, she said, there's an appreciation for the fact that she's a Black woman, but not the same pervasive sense that exists at some larger firms of a desire to fill quotas. And with fewer attorneys and less internal competition, she doesn't have to worry about partners steering work toward other lawyers and what it might mean for her future.

There are advantages for Black lawyers at small and midsize firms, but making the move can still be a difficult pill to swallow. Even if it might bring with it better opportunities and a more comfortable environment, it also represents a door being closed in a lawyer's face, despite their best efforts.

"It's a hard thing for Black lawyers to come to grips with," said Vaughn, at Major Lindsey, "especially because you go to the best schools, you do well, you get into a big firm. It's hard to come to that conclusion because there's a concern about whether or not you're giving up prestige."

It's also important to keep in mind that diversity issues are nuanced, regardless of firm size, Abaya said.

"The profession as a whole can do better to encourage more representation by Black lawyers," he said, "from boutique firms to the Am Law 100."

Erica Silverman, David Gialanella and David Thomas contributed to this article.