Karen Budd-Falen, with her husband Frank Falen, is the owner of the Budd-Falen Law Offices, L.L.C. located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Karen mainly represents private property owners, ranching and farming organizations, and local governments. For example, Karen has assists local governments in asserting their rights of consistency review, cooperation and coordination in federal agency decisions; private property owners in protecting their Constitutionally guaranteed property rights, other multiple users in supporting grazing and multiple use on federal/public lands; and those who are exposing radical environmental groups’ abuse of the legal system through the attorney fee shifting statutes.

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Karen has only temporarily left her State a very few times.  Karen served for three years in the Reagan Administration, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management. She later served as a law clerk to the Assistant Solicitor for Water and Power. In 1987, Karen worked for two years as an attorney at Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest legal foundation in Denver, Colorado.  Most recently, Karen worked in the Trump Administration as Deputy Solicitor for Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior.  As Deputy Solicitor, Karen was the lead attorney in revising the regulations implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA), appealing wetland maps on National Wildlife Refuge System and was Interior's representative in revising the regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

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Some of Karen's publications include The Right to Graze Livestock on the Federal Lands: The Historical Development of Western Grazing Rights, Idaho Law Review, Spring, 1994; Protecting Community Stability and Local Economies: Opportunities for County Government Influence in Federal Decision and Policy Making Processes, Whitman College, 1996; and Counterpoint: Opportunities Lost and Opportunities Gained:  Separating Truth from Myth in the Western Ranching Debate, Karen Budd-Falen editor, Lewis and Clark Law School Environmental Law, 2006.

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Karen was featured in Newsweek Magazine's "Who's Who: 20 for the Future" for her work on property rights and agricultural issues (September 30, 1991). Karen was awarded Wyoming’s Outstanding Ag Citizen in 2001; the “Always There Helping” award from the New Mexico Stock Growers Association in 2003; the “Bud’s Contract” award from the New Mexico Public Lands Council in 2006 and the Individual of the Year award from the Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties for Stable Economic Growth in 2011.

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Karen has presented testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Forest Health; the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources; the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources relating to the National Environmental Policy Act; the U.S. House of Representatives Full Committee on Natural Resources; and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Karen has also testified before committees of the Wyoming Legislature.

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In 2015, Karen was appointed by Wyoming Governor Matt Mead and confirmed by the Senate to serve a four-year term as Commissioner on the Wyoming Water Development Commission. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Wyoming Natural Resources Foundation from 2014 to 2019.  Currently Karen serves on the Western Ag Industry Advisory Committee for the National Agricultural Law Center and on the Board of Directors for the Wyoming Liberty Group.

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Karen is an active volunteer for Future Farmers of America (“FFA”) coaching the Agricultural Issues team for the high schools in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Karen grew up as a fifth-generation rancher on a family-owned ranch in Big Piney, Wyoming.  She and her sister still own the ranch.  Karen and Frank also own and live on a ranch north of Cheyenne, Wyoming.  She received her undergraduate degrees and her law degree from the University of Wyoming. Karen and Frank have two children, Isaac and Sarah, and a grandson, Wesley.