Shutt wins sixth Lawyer of the Year award in Best Lawyers
Congratulations to Burnette Shutt & McDaniel co-founder Nekki Shutt, honored as a Lawyer of the Year for the Columbia area in the just-released 2026 edition of Best Lawyers in America.
She is recognized as Lawyer of the Year in Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law. It’s her sixth Lawyer of the Year award, with five of them coming in employee benefits-related practice areas.
Overall, Shutt is recognized in nine practice areas in the 2026 edition of Best Lawyers. The honors recognize the amazing breadth of her practice, coming in diverse areas ranging from personal injury litigation to commercial litigation to civil rights to qui tam whistleblower law.
“This latest award tells the world what we at the firm already know: that Nekki is an incredible attorney,” Burnette Shutt & McDaniel co-founder Malissa Burnette said. “For more than 10 years, I’ve seen up close how Nekki’s immense skills, fierce determination, and unwavering commitment benefit her clients. It’s great that our peers in the Columbia legal community also recognize her amazing abilities.”
Shutt’s ERISA practice includes fighting for employees who are wrongfully denied short- or long-term disability, group life insurance, and group health insurance claims. She also protects their rights to healthcare benefits under ERISA and similar South Carolina laws. She’s a South Carolina Supreme Court-certified specialist in employment law.
In addition to Shutt, 10 other Burnette Shutt & McDaniel attorneys are included in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers in America and its companion pieces, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch: Burnette, David E. Rothstein, Kathleen McDaniel, Jack Cohoon, Stuart Andrews, Ashley Pennington, Janet E. Rhodes, Grant Burnette LeFever, Sarah J.M. Cox, and Lydia Robins Hendrix.
The firm has a long history of inclusion in Best Lawyers, with individuals earning recognition since 2003. Burnette Shutt & McDaniel has been recognized in Best Law Firms in America, a companion piece, every year through 2023 since the firm was founded. The 2024 edition of Best Law Firms will be released in November.
About Best Lawyers
Best Lawyers in America has served as an annual guide to the nation’s leading attorneys for more than 40 years. The selection process for both Best Lawyers and Ones to Watch, which is limited to attorneys with less than 10 years’ practice, begins with evaluations from other attorneys in the same cities and same practice areas. The attorney with the highest overall peer feedback is designated Lawyer of the Year in each practice area and city.