Iowa Federal Criminal Lawyers.
Methamphetamine conspiracies off I-80, agricultural and crop-insurance fraud, and identity-document cases out of the processing economy - two districts, one long interstate.
Netflix told the story. The defense was ours.
When Shonda Rhimes built Inventing Anna, the defense at its center was Todd Spodek’s - argued for the so-called fake heiress in a Manhattan courtroom long before Arian Moayed of Succession played him on screen. What 320 million hours of viewers watched is the method every client of this firm gets, in every federal district.
The record, dated and sourced.
The districts.
The I-80 docket.
Iowa’s federal criminal calendar is dominated by methamphetamine - conspiracies built from interdiction stops on I-80 and I-35, controlled buys in small cities, and cooperator ladders that climb fast because everyone knows everyone. The Eighth Circuit’s government-friendly suppression law makes the stop litigation technical, and the mandatory minimums make safety-valve eligibility the most valuable analysis in most files.
The agricultural economy adds its own genres: crop-insurance and USDA program fraud, grain-elevator and livestock schemes charged as wire fraud, and identity-document cases out of the meatpacking towns. Des Moines’ insurance headquarters generate periodic white collar prosecutions of genuine size.
Federal defense lawyers in Iowa, the I-80 docket.
Meth conspiracies and farm-economy fraud.
Iowa’s federal calendar is dominated by methamphetamine - conspiracies assembled from I-80 interdiction stops, controlled buys in small cities, and cooperator ladders that climb fast because everyone knows everyone. The ag economy adds its own genre: crop-insurance and USDA program fraud, grain and livestock schemes charged as wire fraud, identity-document cases out of the processing towns.
What you’re actually up against.
The Eighth Circuit’s suppression law runs the government’s way - so the stop litigation has to be surgical, not hopeful. And in the drug files, the most valuable analysis is usually arithmetic: safety-valve eligibility, weight attribution, role. Those numbers decide whether a mandatory minimum applies. Get them wrong and the sentence writes itself.
Why Spodek Law Group.
We’re not your average federal defense firm - we get it. Over 50 years of combined experience. Thousands of federal cases since 1976, second generation. The Sorokin defense became a Netflix series. The R. Kelly witness matter made the AP wire. When federal cases break, the press calls this firm - and prosecutors know exactly which defense lawyers try cases. It changes every conversation about yours.
Des Moines and Cedar Rapids are a morning’s reach through Chicago, and we appear in both Iowa districts with local counsel where required. Guideline math is where Iowa cases are won - and it’s daily work here.
The clock is already running.
The trooper’s stop already happened. The referral letter already went out. What hasn’t happened yet is the indictment - and that gap is where Iowa outcomes move. The consultation is free. It’s confidential. It’s answered 24/7 - 212 300 5196. The government has a head start. Stop giving it a bigger one.
Any district is home ground.
Federal procedure is national - the same rules, the same guidelines, the same DOJ playbook in Iowa as everywhere else. Des Moines and Cedar Rapids are reachable through Chicago in a morning; we appear in both Iowa districts with local counsel as required. Admission is handled by pro hac vice motion with local counsel where required, the client portal keeps every document and conversation in one place across any distance, and the person standing up in court is the lawyer you hired - not a referral.
195 Montague Street, Brooklyn
1301 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown
611 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
Todd A. Spodek is a second-generation trial lawyer whose defense of Anna Delvey became Netflix's Inventing Anna. He appears on Fox News and CNN as a legal analyst, authored "My Advice to Diddy" in The Spectator, and is quoted by the Associated Press when the biggest federal cases break. The record behind the profile: a complete acquittal in a $26M money-laundering trial, RICO charges carrying a 10-year minimum dismissed, and 6 months on a $12M Ponzi case.
See who fights for you before you ever call.
Who we are, how we work, and why clients nationwide trust us with their future - in under a minute.
Why this firm.
Five decades of federal courtrooms. Whatever the government has charged, this firm has defended it before.
No allegiance to U.S. Attorneys, agents, or agencies. The client is the only constituency.
Every district in the country, one client portal - documents, invoices, counsel, in real time.
We decline more federal matters than we accept - and every accepted case gets the whole bench.
The first 72 hours decide the next 72 weeks.
No interviews, no consents, no explaining, no deleting. The words said in hour zero are the exhibits at trial. Write down what was asked and by whom - then stop.
Privilege attaches, facts get mapped while memory is fresh, documents get preserved the right way, and nobody in your orbit talks to agents unrepresented again.
We contact the government as your counsel: target, subject, or witness gets confirmed, deadlines get calendared, and the defense - not the investigation - sets the tempo.
How your case unfolds.
THE FULL PROCESS →Risk-free, in person or by phone. Ask anything, for as long as it takes. Strategy starts the same day.
Subpoenaed inboxes and a drawn timeline - we engage prosecutors at the target-letter stage, where charging is still a choice.
Suppress the overbroad seizure, contest intended loss, redraw the timeline - and when trial is the advantage, intent gets tried on the whole inbox, not the excerpts.


On the record, on the wire.
Get ahead of the case.
Answered within 24 hours, guaranteed. Some stories are better told out loud -
212 300 5196