South Dakota Federal Criminal Lawyers.
A district where the Major Crimes Act supplies a huge share of the docket - nine reservations, serious cases tried federally - alongside I-90 drug conspiracies and ag-economy fraud.
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.
Federal court as the local court.
South Dakota’s nine reservations put an extraordinary share of ordinary criminal law into federal court: under the Major Crimes Act, assaults, burglaries, sex offenses, and homicides involving tribal members are tried by AUSAs under federal sentencing - which means guideline exposure, supervised release, and federal procedure for cases every other state handles locally. Defending them well requires fluency in jurisdiction, status proof, and the guidelines’ harsher math.
The rest of the calendar: methamphetamine conspiracies on I-90 and the pipeline routes, crop-insurance and ag-program fraud, and § 922(g) firearms cases. The Eighth Circuit governs with its strict suppression doctrine.
Federal defense lawyers in South Dakota, where federal court is the local court.
Nine reservations, one federal docket.
Under the Major Crimes Act, a huge share of ordinary criminal law on South Dakota’s nine reservations lands in federal court: assaults, burglaries, sex offenses, homicides - tried by AUSAs, sentenced under federal guidelines, supervised by federal probation. Cases every other state handles locally carry federal exposure here. Around them: I-90 meth conspiracies, crop-insurance fraud, and firearms files.
What you’re actually up against.
Guideline math built for career criminals applied to first-time defendants from Pine Ridge and Rosebud. Status and jurisdiction questions that decide whether the case belongs in federal court at all. Eighth Circuit review that forgives the government most things. The defense that changes outcomes here is threshold-first: jurisdiction, status, suppression - then the sentencing war.
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.
Sioux Falls and Rapid City connect through Minneapolis or Denver, and we appear across the District of South Dakota with local counsel where required. Major Crimes fluency and federal sentencing litigation are the whole game here - and both are standing practice.
The clock is already running.
A tribal-police report forwarded to the FBI becomes a federal indictment quietly. If the interview request has arrived, the file already exists. 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 South Dakota as everywhere else. Sioux Falls and Rapid City connect through Minneapolis or Denver; we appear across the District of South Dakota 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