Strategic Partners
Ernest D. Bennett, Bennett and Pressley, P.C
General Counsel – Lawyer’s Escrow Service
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)
S. Nixon Pressley, Bennett & Pressley, P.C.
Staff Counsel – Lawyer’s Escrow Service
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.