Kinika Young didn’t leave Big Law because of anything overtly racist. It was more subtle than that.

She didn’t mind the work at Bass, Berry & Sims, the largest firm in Tennessee, with nearly 300 lawyers. As an introvert, it was the social navigation that frustrated her, she says—the unwritten rules. Her first couple of years at the firm went terribly. She felt unable to connect with her colleagues. Several years removed from her time at the firm, she’s surprised to look back and realize she stayed for more than a decade.