Lawyer's Escrow Service Inc

Strategic Partners

Ernest D. Bennett, Bennett and Pressley, P.C

General Counsel – Lawyer’s Escrow Service

Denny Bennett is a Tennessee attorney with over 45 years of diverse legal and business experience including private law practice in Sparta, TN for 13 years and in Nashville, TN for a total of 13 years, separated by a period of 3 years during which he served as General Counsel at Robert Orr/Sysco Food Services Company and 16 years during which he was a part owner and senior executive in Automated License Systems, Inc. and later General Manager for Government Licensing for Active Network, Inc., which were pioneering and predominant service providers in the implementation and operation of automated hunting and fishing license sales systems for state and provincial wildlife agencies in the United States and Canada. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Fairfield Communities, Inc., a publicly traded corporation, from 1993 to 2001.  He returned to private law practice in 2015 and since then has focused entirely on residential and commercial real estate, probate, business entity formations and representation, and business transactions.
Denny’s real estate experience stems from his early law practice days in Sparta where his firm represented Commerce Union Bank in mortgage lending and foreclosure matters, closed other real estate purchase and sale transactions including conventional and FHA mortgage loans, and issued title insurance.  In his Nashville law practice from 1992 to 1999, his firm owned “Lawyer’s Escrow Service”, Inc. and Denny took an active part in the oversight of the firm’s real estate practice along with his friend and partner, Mike Philbin.  Mike departed from their law firm at the end of 1998 and “Lawyer’s Escrow Service” went with Mike to its present primary location in the Green Hills area of Nashville.  When Denny returned to private practice in 2015, it was as a successor in interest, along with his current partner, Nixon Pressley, as “Lawyer’s Escrow Service”, opened a second office in Mt. Juliet, TN in 2015. “Lawyer’s Escrow Service” is an appointed title insurance agency for Stewart Title. He was educated at Vanderbilt University (BA), University of Tennessee College of Law (JD), and attended Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business, Belmont University.
Denny Bennett is a Tennessee attorney with over 45 years of diverse legal and business experience including private law practice in Sparta, TN for 13 years and in Nashville, TN for a total of 13 years, separated by a period of 3 years during which he served as General Counsel at Robert Orr/Sysco Food Services Company and 16 years during which he was a part owner and senior executive in Automated License Systems, Inc. and later General Manager for Government Licensing for Active Network, Inc., which were pioneering and predominant service providers in the implementation and operation of automated hunting and fishing license sales systems for state and provincial wildlife agencies in the United States and Canada. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Fairfield Communities, Inc., a publicly traded corporation, from 1993 to 2001.  He returned to private law practice in 2015 and since then has focused entirely on residential and commercial real estate, probate, business entity formations and representation, and business transactions.

Denny’s real estate experience stems from his early law practice days in Sparta where his firm represented Commerce Union Bank in mortgage lending and foreclosure matters, closed other real estate purchase and sale transactions including conventional and FHA mortgage loans, and issued title insurance.  In his Nashville law practice from 1992 to 1999, his firm owned Lawyer’s Escrow Service, Inc. and Denny took an active part in the oversight of the firm’s real estate practice along with his friend and partner, Mike Philbin.  Mike departed from their law firm at the end of 1998 and Lawyer’s Escrow Service went with Mike to its present primary location in the Green Hills area of Nashville.  When Denny returned to private practice in 2015, it was as a successor in interest, along with his current partner, Nixon Pressley, to Mike’s law practice after his death, and as Mike’s successor as President of Lawyer’s Escrow Service, which opened a second office in Mt. Juliet, TN in 2015.

Denny is a licensed title insurance producer in Tennessee and an appointed agent for Stewart Title, and Lawyer’s Escrow Service is an appointed title insurance agency for Stewart Title.  Denny and Lawyer’s Escrow issue only Stewart Title insurance policies.

He was educated at Vanderbilt University (BA), University of Tennessee College of Law (JD), and attended Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business, Belmont University.

ERNEST D. (DENNY) BENNETT, III

President & General Counsel,

Lawyers Escrow Service, Inc.

Senior Attorney, Bennett & Pressley, P.C.

TN BPR #005277

2021 Richard Jones Road, Suite 220

Nashville, TN 37215

615-928-5422 (Direct)

615-457-8099 (Fax)

dbennett@lawyersescrow.com

S. Nixon Pressley, Bennett & Pressley, P.C.

Staff Counsel – Lawyer’s Escrow Service 

Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, Nixon graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration in 1986. After two years working for a real estate development company in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Nixon moved to Nashville and enrolled in law school. He earned his law degree from Nashville School of Law in 1992. Nixon then went to work for his father-in-law, Ken Stilts, as in-house counsel for Mr. Stilts’ music artist management company located in middle Tennessee. Upon Mr. Stilts’ transition from the music business, Nixon became In-House Counsel and later General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer of Mr. Stilts’ other thriving business, S & S Industries, Inc., a manufacturing company serving companies involved in the appliance, heating and air conditioning industries and pre-engineered metal building contractors. Contemporaneously with these endeavors, Nixon operated a solo law practice in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Nixon’s law practice has consisted of a wide array of experience-including personal injury, family law, wills and estates, business formations, contracts and real estate. He also has experience evolving from his time in the corporate world including workers’ compensation, employment law, employee benefits, banking and finance, contracts and leases, insurance and corporate governance. And, as a result of the sale of S & S Industries, Inc. in March of 2013 Nixon has hands-on practical experience with mergers and acquisitions from both a buyer and seller’s perspective. It was as a result of Nixon’s association with Mr. Stilts that he met Michael J. Philbin, a Nashville attorney and founder of the law firm now known as Bennett & Pressley, P.C. Mr. Philbin, who passed away in 2015, represented Mr. Stilts for many years and regarded Mr. Stilts as his oldest and dearest client. It was through that affiliation that Nixon began working with Mr. Philbin having worked together on litigation matters and handled closings on behalf of “Lawyer’s Escrow Service”, Inc. Nixon has over the last twenty-one years conducted over 3,500 closings, consisting of both residential and commercial transactions. Nixon and Mr. Philbin were in the planning stages of a more formal law partnership at the time of Mr. Philbin’s passing in April of 2015. There were discussions ongoing at that time that included the additional involvement of a mutual friend and attorney, Ernest D. (Denny) Bennett, III. With Mr. Philbin’s passing, it became Nixon and Denny’s chief aim to continue the legacy of Mr. Philbin and fulfill the planned mission of partnering together in the practice of law. Nixon and Denny acquired the law practice of Michael J. Philbin and purchased the firm (Michael J. Philbin, P.C.) in June, 2015. The name of the firm was changed to Bennett & Pressley, P.C. However, as a tribute to Mr. Philbin, he will forever be prominently noted on the firm’s letterhead as its founder. Nixon heads up the firm’s Mt. Juliet office. Nixon is admitted to practice in all of the state courts in Tennessee and is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association and the Fifteenth Judicial District Bar Association. Nixon is a member of the Mt. Juliet Breakfast Rotary Club, a past Trustee of Rutland Place, Inc. and served the Mt. Juliet Chamber of Commerce for two terms as Director and as Board Chair in 2016. His past service includes the Mt. Juliet YMCA Advisory Board of Directors and work on behalf of Young Life of Wilson County. He is a 2006 graduate of Leadership Wilson. Nixon and his wife, Tina, reside in Lebanon, Tennessee. They have two children and two grandchildren. In his spare time, Nixon enjoys golf, travel, University of Tennessee athletics and spending time with his family.

Robert L. Scruggs, Attorney at Law

Bob Scruggs is a pre-eminent real estate attorney with 35+ years of residential and commercial real estate experience in Nashville and surrounding areas.

In early 2015, as Bob assessed the looming challenges in the settlement and closing agent industry driven by the soon-to-be-implemented new regulations promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), he concluded that a strategic alliance could be a useful and powerful strategy for continuation of his booming real estate practice through affiliation with a larger strategic partner that would provide the umbrella of CFPB compliance through the implementation and observance of the best practices developed by the American Land Title Association (“ALTA” and “ALTA Best Practices”).

As a result, Bob and “Lawyer’s Escrow Service”, Inc. entered into a Business Services Agreement (“BSA”) that was implemented in July, 2015. At that time, Bob and his two employees engaged in the service and support of his real estate closing, title and escrow business moved into the Lawyer’s Escrow Nashville office as a subtenant of Lawyer’s Escrow. Lawyer’s Escrow now provides all of Bob’s settlement, closing, and escrow services while Bob continues as a Tennessee licensed title insurance producer and is co-signatory agent on title insurance commitments and policies issued on behalf of title insurers for which Bob is an appointed agent, including Stewart Title Guaranty Company and Fidelity National Title Insurance Company.

Although Bob remains a solo practitioner of the law and is not an owner, officer or employee of “Lawyer’s Escrow Service”, Inc., he is a trusted and valued strategic partner in the unique, cutting-edge relationship formed and operating through the BSA.