UW graduate sues Wyoming lawyers over trans sorority fight, media attacks

A University of Wyoming graduate who became the first openly transgender member of UW’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter is now pressing a state-court case that says two Wyoming lawyers used her sorority dispute to bully her on national television and online. Artemis Langford graduated from UW in May 2025, but her legal fight over what happened in Laramie is still moving through Wyoming courts.

Langford’s lawsuit names Cassie Craven, John Knepper, Longhorn Law and the Law Office of John Knepper. She alleges the lawyers did more than represent their clients in the sorority case. The complaint says they injected irrelevant and humiliating details into court filings, made media appearances to inflame the controversy and helped raise money through crowdfunding while her name was pushed into the national spotlight.

The case grew out of the 2023 fight over Langford’s membership in UW’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter. Six sorority members sued to remove her and seek a ruling that transgender women could not join sororities nationwide. U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming Judge Alan B. Johnson dismissed that case in August 2023, and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later threw out the appeal on procedural grounds in June 2024. Even after those rulings, the dispute continued to generate later filings and refiled complaints.

Langford’s current suit says Craven and Knepper used the litigation as a platform, not just a courtroom fight. One key flashpoint was Craven’s May 2023 appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show, which Langford’s complaint ties to the broader campaign against her. A judge later found that 94% of the refiled complaint was unrelated to the legal claims, a point Langford’s side has used to argue the case was never just about sorority bylaws.

Craven has now settled with Langford for an undisclosed amount, and court filings say Craven and her firm were dismissed with prejudice. Knepper remains a defendant and could still face a jury trial on claims including abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit lands in a state where Kappa Kappa Gamma still describes itself as a women’s sisterhood and membership network, and where Langford has said she left Wyoming after years of online harassment and a wave of new state laws targeting transgender rights. For Albany County, the case keeps UW, Laramie and the local bar at the center of a fight that could shape professional conduct, campus climate and how future legal battles over transgender rights are fought in Wyoming.