Burnette Shutt & McDaniel welcomes attorney Johanna Valenzuela
COLUMBIA, SC – Burnette Shutt & McDaniel is thrilled to announce that Johanna Valenzuela is bringing her formidable skills and rich legal knowledge to our firm. A deeply experienced attorney, her practice will focus on employment law, litigation, and qui tam whistleblower cases.
Johanna served for six years in the United States Attorney’s Columbia office, rising to chief deputy of the civil division. She litigated many False Claims Act whistleblower cases during her time there. The False Claims Act allows citizens to expose instances of fraud, corruption, and wrongdoing, sharing in any money the government recovers. If the government declines to pursue a case, citizens can proceed on their own. Johanna has the skills to help people do that.
She also served as civil rights coordinator for the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Columbia office, supervising cases involving juvenile justice, Institutionalized Persons Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VI, Title VII, the Olmstead Act, and the Fair Housing Act. Her leadership earned her multiple national awards and U.S. Attorney’s Office commendations.
Before working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she was an attorney for the South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee, worked in the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, and served in the Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office in York County. She tried more than a dozen criminal cases to verdict and negotiated plea agreements in hundreds more while in that position.
Johanna’s commitment to public service extends far beyond her time as an attorney. She is also a U.S. Air Force veteran.
Prior to serving in the military, Johanna earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations at the University of South Carolina. After her military service, she then attended the University of South Carolina School of Law, graduating magna cum laude. After graduating law school, she completed a clerkship with the U.S. District Court Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr.