Conner Nicklas is an associate attorney at Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He is licensed in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as before the Eighth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Federal District Court for the District of Wyoming. Conner grew up in the Western Slope of Colorado. Growing up in such an area gave Conner an appreciation for natural resource law and the local issues surrounding those resources.

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At the Budd-Falen Law Offices, Conner has been heavily involved with landowner groups and private property rights throughout Wyoming and the West. He has represented several landowner groups spanning thousands of miles in collective bargaining with companies for interstate easement and lease acquisitions. Conner has additionally negotiated numerous oil and gas leases, surface use agreements, wind leases, solar lease, pore space leases conservation easements, and powerline easements across the West. In 2023 Conner represented a landowner group who successfully negotiated a pore space lease covering over a half million acres of land across three states, making it the largest private land pore space lease in the world at the time.

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Conner has practiced before the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on behalf of clients as well as practiced before the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office in a water rights dispute in a groundwater control area. He has also represented clients having issues with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

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Conner has been involved in several landmark property rights cases, including filing briefs before the Wyoming Supreme Court involving the Wyoming Split Estate Act and before the United States Supreme Court in cases involving the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and land use planning.

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Conner’s practice also involves local government advocacy. He has assisted over a dozen counties and conservation districts across the west in developing natural resource management plans that allow those local governments to meaningfully participate in federal decision-making concerning natural resources within their jurisdictions. To additionally assist local governments, Conner has drafted several comments involving the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws on their behalf.

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Conner was heavily involved at the University of Wyoming College of Law where he received his law degree and graduated with honors in the top 10 of his class. He was a staff member for the Wyoming Law Review. He was a law school ambassador and mentored incoming law students. He was the Vice-President of the Blume Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International, which completed several service projects and community outreaches in Laramie and is currently the largest law fraternity at the University of Wyoming.

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Conner is married to his wife Heather and they are parents to two little boys, Luke and Arthur. The family is active members of Cheyenne Evangelical Free Church in Cheyenne where Conner is an elder and they lead a bible study for young adults in the community. Conner also is a committee member for Cheyenne Young Life. In his free time, Conner enjoys snowboarding, hiking, fishing, and watching the Colorado Rockies, and Denver Broncos. Conner is also a season ticket holder to Wyoming football and a member of the Cowboy Joe Club.