Grant Burnette LeFever | Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, PA

A Columbia native and graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Grant Burnette LeFever focuses her legal practice on employment law, including a range of civil rights and discrimination issues. She also practices family law and education law, including issues involving Title IX, special education, school discipline and teacher employment issues.

Grant joined Burnette Shutt & McDaniel as an attorney in 2018, shortly after she was admitted to the South Carolina Bar. She’d worked at the firm for more than a year prior to that as its senior law clerk, preparing pleadings, motions and orders and conducting legal research.

She earned numerous honors as a student at the USC School of Law, including CALI Awards for S.C. workers’ compensation law and legal research, analysis and writing. Those prestigious honors go to the law student with the highest grade in the class. She also served as senior articles editor for the Journal of Law & Education.

Grant served as associate editor and co-authored the chapter on workers’ compensation for the fifth edition of Labor and Employment Law for South Carolina Lawyers, the state’s go-to guide for employment lawyers. She also co-authored the employment law chapter for the South Carolina Bar’s book on workers’ compensation law and practice.

Grant earned a master’s degree in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi, where she focused much of her studies on civil rights. It is this work that ultimately led to her decision to pursue a career in law. Grant’s thesis, completed during her first year of law school, examined social, cultural, and political issues surrounding display of the Confederate flag at South Carolina’s Capitol. She graduated cum laude from Presbyterian College with a bachelor’s degree in English and History.

Her work in the community is extensive. During law school, Grant was a member of the law school’s Pro Bono Board and served as co-president in her final year. She currently is Service Chair for the Presbyterian College Midlands Alumni Chapter. She’s also volunteered for organizations and programs ranging from Harvest Hope and the United Way to the Richland County Probate Court Special Visitors Program and the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.

Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina
South Carolina

Education

University of South Carolina School of Law, Juris Doctor, 2018
- President’s Honor Roll
- Dean’s List
University of Mississippi, Master of Arts in Southern Studies, 2016
Presbyterian College, Bachelor of Arts in English and History, Southern Studies minor, cum laude, 2013
- President’s List
- Dean’s List
- University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, Fall Semester, 2011

Associations

South Carolina Bar
- Employment and Labor Law Section
- Young Lawyers Division
Richland County Bar Association
South Carolina Women Lawyers Association
Presbyterian College Alumni Board of Directors
Presbyterian College Midlands Alumni Chapter, Service Chair
United Way of the Midlands Young Leaders Society
Pro Bono Board, co-president, fall 2017 to spring 2018; member, fall 2016 to spring 2018
Richland County Probate Court Special Visitors Program
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program

Honors & Awards

Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2025, Civil Rights Law, Education Law, Family Law, Labor and Employment Law – Management, Labor and Employment Law – Employee, and Litigation – Labor and Employment Law
Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2024, Education Law
Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2023, Civil Rights Law, Education Law, Family Law, Labor and Employment Law – Management, and Litigation – Labor and Employment Law
Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2021-22, Labor and Employment Law – Employee; Labor and Employment Law – Management; and Litigation – Labor and Employment
“Legal Elite of the Midlands”, 2021 to present by Columbia Business Monthly
Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Employment Litigation: Plaintiff, 2021 to present
Irving Steinburg Award, University of South Carolina School of Law
Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award, University of South Carolina School of Law
CALI Awards
- South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law
- Legal Research, Analysis and Writing II
Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society
Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society

Published Works

Labor and Employment Law for South Carolina Lawyers, Fifth Edition, Assistant Editor, Co-Author, 2019.
“Convergence of Employment Laws and the Workers’ Compensation Act,” Co-Author, in The Law of Workers’ Compensation Insurance in South Carolina, Seventh Edition, 2019.
“Furling the South Carolina Confederate Battle Flag: Political Expediency or Cultural Change?,” Master’s Thesis, Defended and Published, August 2016.
“Parasites, and Rabies, and Retractors, OH MY!: Female Bodily Horror in David Cronenberg’s Films,” Senior Capstone in English, presented at Presbyterian College Honors Day, April 2013.
“LSD: An Icon of 1960s Popular Culture,” Senior Capstone in History, presented at Presbyterian College Honors Day, April 2012.

Classes/Seminars

Panelist for a discussion of new legislation and its impact on the workforce, including the PUMP Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, NC/SC Labor and Employment Law Conference, 2023.
Panelist, “Navigating the Post-Dobbs Future,” sponsored by University of Florida – Fredric G. Levin College of Law Journal of Law and Public Policy, March 2, 2023.
Presenter, “The United States Supreme Court and the Future of Civil Liberties in America,” South Carolina Bar Convention CLE, January 2023.