Raven Attwood (’15)
Staff Attorney, Dilkon Judicial District, Navajo Nation

Raven Attwood was born in Idaho and grew up in the Texas panhandle, where his family settled when he was nine. He joined the Navy at age 17 to get as far from small-town West Texas as he could. After his enlistment ended, Raven pursued an undergraduate degree in Anthropology, a field he settled on because while traveling and working as a technician in the Navy, he decided humans were far more interesting than machines. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2006, then returned to ASU for law school after five years working in retail. He decided to pursue a public service law career out of a desire to “do good and do well.”  Raven earned his Juris Doctor with a Certificate in Indian Law from Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in 2015.

Raven began his law career working for the Navajo people as an attorney for the Office of the Navajo Public Defender in Tuba City, Arizona, where he built bridges with the Federal Public Defender’s office in the District of Arizona, successfully won two writs for habeas corpus before the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, and was recognized by the Arizona Public Defender Association for his dedication and effort to help indigent defendants in Navajo Nation criminal and juvenile courts. He has been Staff Attorney for the Dilkon Judicial District of the Navajo Nation Judicial Branch since April 2020, and is bringing the same dedication to the Court’s efforts to maintain institutional access during the COVID-19 pandemic, develop trauma-informed court practices, and implement culturally-attuned best practices in child neglect cases in the Dilkon Family Court.