Tired of Waiting on Big Law, Black Lawyers Build Own ‘Pipeline’

Brianna Cummings was one of only two Black lawyers in her practice group at a major Wall Street firm, so she looked elsewhere for advice about how to navigate day-to-day life in Big Law as a junior attorney fresh out of school.

“A lot of the firms are big but the individual practice groups are small, and there are few minorities, so they can be difficult and isolating places to work,” Cummings, who has since changed firms and is now an M&A associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said in an interview.

She turned to several Black attorneys, part of a ...