William Perry Pendley

William Perry Pendley was born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming, received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics and Political Science from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., was a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, and received his J.D. from the University of Wyoming, College of Law. He was an attorney to U.S. Senator Clifford P. Hansen (R-Wyoming) and to the U.S. House of Representatives Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. During the Reagan administration, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Minerals of the U.S. Department of the Interior, where he authored President Reagan's National Minerals Policy, initiated the Exclusive Economic Zone proclamation, and ensured an honorable memorial to Vietnam War veterans. He was a consultant to Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman, Jr., and practiced law for four years in northern Virginia. For nearly 30 years (1989 – 2018), he led Mountain States Legal Foundation and took it from the verge of bankruptcy to a renowned nonprofit, public-interest law firm with its own headquarters, ten million dollars in the bank, and landmark victories for its diverse pro bono clients, including his three trips to the Supreme Court of the United States in a historic civil rights case. During the Trump administration, he was Deputy Director, Policy and Programs, of the Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior and was responsible for its 10,000 employees who manage 245 million acres of federal land, mostly in the West and Alaska. Admitted to the bars of Colorado, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Wyoming, he appears often on radio and television as an expert, and publishes op-eds on a host of western and national issues.