Alys Drake | Daily Memphian
Evans Petree attorneys named ‘Lawyer of the Year’
Two attorneys with Evans Petree were named “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers, a peer-reviewed recognition of top legal professionals with only 5% of U.S. lawyers and 3% globally earning this honor.
Caren Beth Nichol was named a 2027 Litigation and Controversy-Tax and Administrative/Regulatory Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Memphis. As a member of Evans Petree’s Property Tax Group, Nichol litigates commercial property tax appeals before state boards and state courts. She previously served as president of Evans Petree PC from 2017–18, becoming the first woman to lead a major Memphis law firm. During her tenure, the firm expanded its attorney roster, opened an Oxford office, overhauled its marketing and relocated its headquarters.
Nichol has earned multiple professional honors, including the Sam A. Myar Jr. Memorial Award for service to the community and the Bar Association. She has been repeatedly recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation and selected as one of Super Lawyers’ top 50 Women Lawyers in the Mid-South. She has also been a Memphis Business Journal Best of the Bar finalist and a Super Women in Business honoree.
Nichol earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a law degree from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis.
Her civic and professional involvement includes mentoring through MBJ’s Mentoring Monday, serving as a Fox 13 legal correspondent, and serving on the Beale Street Tourism Development Authority. She has held leadership roles with the Children’s Museum of Memphis and contributed to projects with Habitat for Humanity and the Memphis Bar Association.
She also played a key role in the University of Memphis natatorium renovation, supporting the $15 million capital campaign and helping forge a partnership among the university, Memphis Tiger Swimming, Splash Mid-South, the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South and the Rose Foundation to create an aquatics center named for the late philanthropist Mike Rose.
Scott B. Peatross was named a 2027 Trusts and Estates “Lawyer of the Year” in Memphis. Peatross, a probate attorney whose practice centers on wills, trusts, estates and related litigation, represents clients ranging from families to banks, trustees and nonprofit beneficiaries. Other lawyers frequently tap him to mediate or serve as a professional fiduciary in complex probate disputes.
Shelby County Probate Court judges appointed Peatross as the county’s first public administrator in 2005, a role he continues to hold, overseeing some of the court’s most challenging cases. He also lectures on probate law, presents CLE programs and occasionally serves as a substitute probate judge.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College and a law degree from the Tulane University Law School.
Memphis-based Evans Petree is a full-service law firm founded in 1907, with offices in Memphis, Franklin and Oxford.
