At the Knoxville Bar Association’s annual meeting Sarah Y. Sheppeard was recognized as the first recipient of the Don Paine Lawyer Legacy Award. The award honors Don Paine’s memory and recognizes exceptional lawyers who love the law, serve the community, mentor and teach other lawyers and who are committed to access to justice for all.
Sarah Sheppeard is Special Counsel and a Supreme Court Rule 31 Mediator, in the firm’s Knoxville office. Sarah practices in the areas of domestic relations, estates, commercial law and general civil litigation. She 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 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. She served on the Advisory Commission to the Tennessee Supreme Court on Rules of Practice and Procedure. She is certified as a Rule 31 Mediator by the Tennessee Supreme Court and is Chancellor [legal counsel] of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. She 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.