Sarah Y. Sheppeard has joined the Knoxville office of the law firm Lewis, Thomason, King, Krieg & Waldrop, P.C. as Special Counsel. Sheppeard is also a Supreme Court Rule 31 Mediator.
Sheppeard joins Lewis Thomason with more than 35 years of experience encompassing primarily civil litigation, including areas of domestic relations, civil rights, personal injury and corporate litigation.
Upon graduating from law school at the University Of Tennessee College Of Law in 1979 Sheppeard began her career and most recently was a founding member of the Knoxville firm, Sheppeard & Mynatt, P.L.C.
“Lewis Thomason is pleased to add Sarah Sheppeard to the firm; she is well-known across the state of Tennessee,” said Lisa Cole. “Sheppeard’s extensive experience will be a value-add to our firm’s business law practice, especially her concentration in the areas of domestic relations, estates and commercial law,” said Lisa Ramsay Cole, president of the firm.
“Joining Lewis Thomason is a proud and exciting moment in my career and provides me with a tremendous opportunity to expand the resources available to my clients,” Sheppeard said. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues statewide.”
“We welcome Sarah Sheppeard to the Lewis Thomason Knoxville office. Sarah’s experience and her ability as a Supreme Court Rule 31 Mediator are second to none,” said Rod Fields, managing shareholder of the Lewis Thomason Knoxville office.
Sheppeard has been a lecturer with the Tennessee Law Institute since 1988. She was chair of the Tennessee Judicial Evaluation Commission, was for 15 years an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, was previously a member of the Tennessee Law Review, and has chaired the Tennessee Bar Association’s Litigation Section and CLE Committee. A past-president of the Knoxville Bar Association, she is a Fellow in the Knoxville, Tennessee and American Bar Foundations and the Fellows of the Tennessee Young Lawyers Conference. Sheppeard served on the Advisory Commission to the Tennessee Supreme Court on Rules of Practice and Procedure. Sheppeard received the Tennessee Bar Association’s President’s award in 2010. In 2014, she was presented with the Knoxville Bar Association’s highest honor, the Governors’ Award.
A native of Knoxville, she received her B.A. majoring in organism and systems biology with subspecialty in chemistry, with Honors, from the University of Tennessee and her J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law. Sheppeard and her husband, Ben Alford, reside in Knoxville. They have two children, Jennifer Akerman, a professor at UT’s College of Architecture and Lee Alford, the Housing Development Officer for Community Housing Partners in Richmond, Virginia. They also have two grandchildren, Emma and Hayden Alford.
Lewis Thomason has offices in Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis. Lewis Thomason attorneys cover the entire state of Tennessee and serve regional and national clients. Several of the firm’s lawyers are licensed in the states of Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, California, Florida, and Ontario, Canada.