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Law clerk Siri Cortez plans to join Burnette Shutt & McDaniel as an attorney

September 16, 2026   •   Featured, News

Siri Cortez, a third-year student at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law, will join Burnette Shutt & McDaniel as an attorney after her graduation in the spring.

Siri has worked as a law clerk at Burnette Shutt & McDaniel in Columbia for nearly a year. In that role, she has drafted legal documents, conducted legal research, and communicated with clients in cases involving employment law, civil rights law, and other litigation.

She also served as a research assistant at the law school, work that included organizing community events, moderating panels, and research into the state of small, family-owned farms in South Carolina and throughout the Southeast.

Her other law school activities include treasurer of the Latino Law Student Association and membership in the Black Law Students Association and in the Environmental Law Society. She also was a participant in the Judicial Observation and Experience Program summer internship with the Honorable John W. Kittredge, Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, and the Honorable Kristi F. Curtis of the South Carolina Court of Appeals.

Siri came to South Carolina when she was a teen. She graduated cum laude from the University of South Caroline with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a minor in studio art. After graduating, she lived briefly in the Dominican Republic before taking classes at the Art Students’ League of New York.

Siri is the latest in a line of Burnette Shutt & McDaniel law clerks who have become attorneys at the firm after passing the SC Bar. We’re pleased that she will be joining us in this new role.