About Tazewell T Shepard
Tazewell T Shepard III brings a long record of public service and courtroom work to his practice. He completed undergraduate studies in history and economics at Dartmouth College in 1972 after attending Eton College the year before. Shepard earned his J.D. from the University of Alabama in 1976, and built a career that spans bankruptcy work, court appointments and law practice management.
Early in his career Shepard established credentials in federal and state courts. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eleventh and Fifth Circuits, the District of Columbia and the Federal Circuit, along with state courts in Alabama. Over the years he has taken on roles that require both technical legal knowledge and administrative oversight.
At the center of his practice is work in insolvency and court-supervised matters. Shepard serves as a Chapter 7 trustee in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and has been appointed as a receiver in various state court cases. In private practice he is the managing partner of Sparkman, Shepard & Morris, P.C., where he oversees client matters and firm operations. Those responsibilities have kept him engaged in contested workouts, asset management under court orders and litigation that arises from business failures.
Shepard has maintained a presence in legal education and public policy. From 2000 to 2004 he taught commercial law as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama School of Law. He was appointed to President Clinton’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for 2000–2001 and served as vice chairman of the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission in the mid-1990s. Earlier, he was an elected member of the State Board of Education from 1990 to 1994 and chaired the Governor’s Commission on School Violence from 1993 to 1995.
His involvement extends into civic and professional organizations. Shepard has served on the Alabama Supercomputer Authority board and, by gubernatorial appointment, sits on the Athens State University Board of Trustees. He was president of the Huntsville-Madison County Bar Association in 2012–2013, is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has been a bar commissioner for the Alabama State Bar since 2014. Since 2017 he has led the Madison County Volunteer Lawyer Program as its president.
Colleagues describe Shepard as methodical and steady in court, and willing to take on roles that require oversight as much as advocacy. He continues to handle bankruptcies, receiverships and related commercial matters while managing his firm and participating in regional legal governance. His current practice centers on bankruptcy administration, court-appointed receiverships and commercial litigation.
