Our Values
At Mouw Law & the Raven Community Fund, justice is not a transaction, it is a relationship.
We serve from clarity, compassion, sovereignty, and a belief that every person deserves to be treated with dignity and truth.
Although the Raven Community Fund will eventually operate as a separate
501(c)(3), our values are shared.
These values guide everything we do.
Mouw Law:
Vision, Mission, & Promise
Our Vision
A South Dakota where justice is accessible, human, and grounded in community.
A legal landscape where families feel safe, informed, and supported — not intimidated — and where the law functions as a stabilizing force, not a weapon
Our Mission
To provide clear, compassionate, trauma-informed legal care; and to confront the systems that cause harm through neglect, oppression, or misuse of power. We walk beside clients with transparency, dignity, and an unwavering commitment to making justice more accessible, more human, and more accountable.
Our Promise
To listen deeply, speak plainly, and walk with you, not above you.
No shame.
No jargon.
No gatekeeping.
Just clear options, honest pricing, and steady guidance toward safety and stability.
Raven Community Fund: Vision, Mission, & Promise
Our Vision
A community where no parent faces the courts alone,
no survivor is turned away for lack of funds, and no family is punished for poverty.
A South Dakota where justice is shared and honored, not hoarded and inaccessible.
Our Mission
To close the justice gap by using the system’s own resources—insurance payouts, contingency contributions, and institutional reimbursements—to fund what we can.
And where the system refuses to pay, the Raven Community Fund ensures that survivors, low-income families, and system-impacted clients still receive real legal protection.
Our Promise
To operate with integrity, transparency, and zero strings attached.
Support flows directly to clients who need it most — with compassion, dignity, and a commitment to ethical practice.
Our Shared Values
1. Trauma-Informed Legal Care
We meet clients where they are — not where systems expect them to be.
We design communication, pacing, and preparation with nervous system safety and dignity at the center.
Law does not have to retraumatize.
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2. Sovereignty & Dignity
Clients remain the decision-makers in their lives.
We guide, explain, and empower — we do not coerce.
Legal representation should expand someone’s power, not replace it.
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3. Radical Transparency
No hidden fees.
No mystery steps.
No punitive jargon or gatekeeping.
We know we can't help everyone, especially as we grow.
Clear pricing, clear timelines, clear expectations — every time.
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4. Decolonized Legal Practice
We refuse to replicate the extractive, punitive, fear-based norms baked into traditional lawyering.
We practice with humility, cultural awareness, consent, and ongoing unlearning.
We honor humanity over hierarchy — always.
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5. Justice Through Access
Rights mean nothing without access.
We fight systemic and financial barriers through:
• sliding scales
• transparent pricing
• the Raven Community Fund
• plain-language communication
• flexible pathways
• and community-focused legal structures
Justice isn’t a luxury. It’s a right.
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6. Strength Without Violence
We advocate fiercely without becoming what we fight.
Our power is grounded in preparation, clarity, coherence, and unwavering alignment — not aggression.
We hold the line with ethics, and without harm.
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7. Integrity in Action
Integrity isn’t posturing — it’s practice.
We tell the truth, follow through, and choose the ethical path even when the system pressures otherwise.
We do the right thing because it is the right thing.
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8. Coherence & Presence
We regulate our own nervous systems so clients can tune to safety rather than chaos.
We practice grounded lawyering: clear, calm, deliberate, and human.
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9. Community Responsibility
Justice becomes stronger when it is shared.
Our work invests in families, children, animals, land, and the unseen labor of collective wellbeing.
A just legal ecosystem is built community by community.
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10. Respect for Life & Land Stewardship
Justice does not happen in a vacuum.
It lives in communities, on land, and alongside all living beings.
We honor the inherent value of all life — human, animal, and earth — and practice law with awareness that our choices ripple outward.
We commit to minimizing harm and grounding our work in care for the land we stand on.
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11. Guardianship, Not Gatekeeping
We are not keepers of secrets — we are guardians of access.
We teach, explain, translate, and empower so clients can understand their own legal landscape.
Knowledge belongs to the people it affects.
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12. The Raven Ethos
Wisdom.
Witnessing.
Transformation.
Community.
Flightpaths toward a better world.
The Raven Community Fund carries these values forward, ensuring no one faces the courts alone.