Caren's areas of concentration include business and commercial litigation; construction law and liens; bankruptcy; creditor, debtor and collection; foreclosures and evictions. She received her undergraduate degree in history and East Asian studies from Carleton College and graduated magna cum laude from Hamline University School of Law. While in law school, she was an editor of the Hamline Law Review and published an article on copyright law. She also worked part-time for the Minnesota Attorney General's
Office in the Tax Litigation division.

Caren is a native of the Fargo-Moorhead area and graduated from Moorhead Senior High School. Prior to attending law school, she worked for several years at Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions as a software support technician and trainer. Her husband is a database administrator. They have two daughters, a rescue cat, and a Great Dane. Caren spends most of her free time cheering on the kids in their activities, especially those long soccer trips, and walking (or being walked by is perhaps more accurate) the dog.