Amanda Mueller is one of the newest members of LGBTQ+ Bar Association Family Law Institute
Burnette Shutt & McDaniel partner Mandy Mueller has joined the LGBTQ+ Bar Association Family Law Institute. She is among only four South Carolina attorneys approved for membership in the national rights organization.
The Family Law Instituted was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the LGBTQ+ Bar, which has sponsored the annual Lavender Law Conference annually since 1988, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Through active online groups and annual meetings, the Family Law Institute gives attorneys a way to network and exchange knowledge with LGBTQ+ family lawyers in other states.
Topics the Family Law Institute covers include family creation, assisted reproductive technology, interstate and international parentage issues, transgender issues and more.
“The Family Law Institute is on the cutting edge of moving law forward for the LGBTQ+ community,” Mandy said. “The organization is dedicated to helping experienced family law attorneys share knowledge and strategies. I’m excited to be able to contribute to the conversation and to have the opportunity to learn from leading attorneys across the country.”
Mandy Mueller has practiced family law in Columbia for close to a decade, starting with her time as an attorney with the South Carolina Department of Social Services. She then worked for a private law firm for several years before joining Burnette Shutt & McDaniel.
She’s an experienced litigator with more than a thousand court appearances. She successfully litigated several multi-day trials, and she’s represented clients in complicated family law cases involving active-duty military members.
Mandy has advanced training in family law through the National Family Law Trial Institute. The preeminent program’s faculty includes the top family law litigators across the country as well as recognized authorities in psychological and custody evaluations, business valuation, family law advocacy and cross-examination.
LGBTQ+ family law services
Mandy’s practice at Burnette Shutt & McDaniel includes all facets of family law, from separation to divorce to post-dissolution matters. She also represents clients in paternity, child support, protection orders, property division and more.
She and other attorneys at Burnette Shutt & McDaniel represent LGBTQ+ clients in second-parent adoptions, gender-affirming name changes, birth-certificate amendments, pre- and post-marital agreements and domestic partner agreements, powers of attorney and more.
As a firm, Burnette Shutt & McDaniel long has been committed to protecting LGBTQ+ rights. Two of the founding partners, Malissa Burnette and Nekki Shutt, were lead counsel in the case that ushered in marriage equality in South Carolina.
The firm currently is local counsel in a case challenging South Carolina’s policy of granting state funding to religious organizations that refuse to allow same-sex couples to serve as foster parents.