Montana Federal Criminal Lawyers.
A district the size of Germany where the Major Crimes Act makes ordinary felonies federal on reservation land, meth pipelines run the interstates, and every division knows every lawyer.
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 district.
Where ordinary crimes become federal by geography.
Montana’s federal docket is unlike the coasts’: the Major Crimes Act routes serious offenses on the state’s seven reservations into federal court, so assault, burglary, and homicide cases that would be state matters anywhere else are tried by AUSAs under federal sentencing law - a system with profound consequences for Native defendants that competent counsel must know cold. Around it: methamphetamine and fentanyl pipelines running I-90 and I-15 from the northwest, charged as conspiracies with weight-driven minimums.
Public-lands and wildlife prosecutions, guiding and outfitting fraud, and § 922(g) firearms cases fill the rest of a calendar spread across five divisional courthouses and eight hundred miles.
Federal defense lawyers in Montana, federal by geography.
Where ordinary crimes become federal.
On Montana’s seven reservations, the Major Crimes Act routes serious cases - assault, burglary, homicide - into federal court. Cases every other state handles locally get tried by AUSAs under federal sentencing law, with consequences the defendants rarely see coming: guideline exposure, supervised release, federal procedure. Around that docket: meth and fentanyl pipelines on I-90 and I-15, public-lands and wildlife prosecutions, and § 922(g) firearms cases across five divisional courthouses and eight hundred miles.
What you’re actually up against.
Jurisdictional questions most lawyers have never briefed - status proof, Castro-Huerta’s carve-backs, the line between tribal, state, and federal power. Get them wrong and a winnable case becomes a federal sentence. Get them right and the case can leave federal court entirely. Interdiction stops under Ninth Circuit law fill the rest - litigable, if someone builds the record.
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.
Billings and Missoula connect through Denver or Salt Lake in a morning, and we appear across the District of Montana’s divisions with local counsel where required. Major Crimes fluency is not optional here - it’s the case.
The clock is already running.
A tribal-police report forwarded to the FBI. A stop on I-90. In a district this size, files move slowly - until they don’t. Use the quiet. 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 Montana as everywhere else. Billings and Missoula connect through Denver or Salt Lake in a morning; we appear across the District of Montana’s divisions with local counsel where 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