This study explores and interprets in a new way the complex solvent and the temperature dependence of the NMR shifts for the N-$CH_2$ protons in tris(N,N-diethyldithiocarbamato) iron(III) in acetone, benzene, carbon disulfide, chloroform, dimethylformamide and pyridine. The NMR shifts are interpreted in terms of the Fermi contact interaction and the dipolar term from the multipole expansion of the interaction of the electron orbital angular momentum and the electron spin dipolar-nuclear spin angular momentum. This analysis yields a direct measure of the effect of the solvent system on the environment of the transition metal ion. The results are analysed in terms of the crystal field environment of the transition metal ion with contributions from (a) the dithiocarbamate ligand (b) the solvent molecules and (c) the interaction of the effective dipole moment of the polar solvent molecule with the transition metal ion complex.