Sarah Y. Sheppeard

Sarah Y. Sheppeard is a shareholder 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 is a past-president of the Tennessee Bar Association and has chaired the Tennessee Bar Association Litigation Section and CLE Committee. 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, and was previously a member of the Tennessee Law Review. 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 Vice-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.

PROFESSIONAL HONORS AND ACTIVITIES

•Named Best Lawyers 2021 and 2023 Mediation “Lawyer of the Year” in Knoxville
•Named in the 2021 Best Lawyers “Women in the Law” Business Edition
•Tennessee Bar Association
•President, 2019-2020
•President-Elect, 2018-2019
•Selected by American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell as Elite Lawyer of the South, 2018
•Named a Cityview Magazine Top Attorney
•Recipient of Don Paine Lawyer Legacy Award, 2015
•Recipient of Knoxville Bar Association Governors’ Award, 2014
•Recipient of Tennessee Bar Association President’s Award, 2010
•Recipient of American Bar Association Judicial Education Award presented by Special Judges Section, 2007
•Recipient of YWCA Tribute to Women Award in the field of Business and Government, 1993
•Recipient of Outstanding alumni of Roosevelt Inn, The International Legal Fraternity of Phi Delta Phi, 1994
•Named to The Best Lawyers in America , Family Law; Family Law Mediation
•Named one of Best 101 Lawyers in Tennessee@ by Business Tennessee magazine, 2004-present
•Named to Super Lawyers@, 2006-2016, 2018-present
•fellow, Knoxville Bar Foundation, 1992-present
•fellow, American Bar Foundation, 2009-present
•fellow, Tennessee Bar Foundation, 1994-present
•Fellows of the Tennessee Young Lawyers Conference

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

•Participant in The Pro Bono Project and through private practice
•Chancellor, Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, 2005-2019
•Vice-Chancellor, Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, 2020-present
•Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan; Senior Warden (two years); Vestry Member (six years); Stewardship Chairman; Chair of the finance committee
•Board Member, Episcopal Chancellors Network Board Membe