Malissa Burnette wins fifth Lawyer of the Year award in Best Lawyers
Congratulations to our shero, firm co-founder Malissa Burnette. She’s won her fifth Lawyer of the Year award in Best Lawyers in America, a national peer-reviewed guide to the legal profession.
This year’s Lawyer of the Year honor is in Employment Law – Individuals for the Columbia area. It’s the fourth time she’s earned that title, and her fifth Lawyer of the Year award overall.
“When you have the privilege of being Malissa’s partner, you’re constantly blown away by her skills, knowledge, determination and dedication in moving law forward,” firm co-founder Nekki Shutt said. “It’s great that other attorneys in Columbia, many of whom we often go up against, see those same amazing traits that we do.”
Throughout her illustrious career, Malissa has been at the forefront of state and federal landmark cases that have changed lives. She successfully fought to allow women to attend state-supported military colleges and won girls the rights to play contact sports in South Carolina. She and Nekki Shutt were part of the legal team that paved the way for marriage equality in South Carolina. She, along with firm co-founder Kathleen McDaniel and attorney Grant Burnette LeFever, are part of the legal team waging an unrelenting, years-long battle against draconian South Carolina abortion law.
Malissa has been a South Carolina Supreme Court-certified specialist in Employment and Labor Law since 1993.
Malissa also was recognized in four other practice areas in the just-released 2025 edition of Best Lawyers: Litigation – Labor and Employment Law, Education Law, Civil Rights Law, and Mediation. Her awards were part of a record showing for the Burnette Shutt & McDaniel team that included a total of 11 attorneys recognized across more than a dozen practice areas in Best Lawyers and its companion piece, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.
About Best Lawyers
Published nationally for more than 40 years, Best Lawyers in America is a guide to the country’s leading attorneys. The selection process includes evaluations from other attorneys in the same cities and practice areas. It also includes independent research. The attorney in each city with the highest overall peer feedback is designated as the Lawyer of the Year for each practice area.