July 2026 isn’t just a notable birthday for the nation — it also happens to be the 10-year anniversary of when Ag & Business Legal Strategies founder Joe Peiffer opened his own firm specializing in farm and small business debt restructuring, bankruptcy, and related legal representation.

And although the decision to leave his previous law firm and strike out on his own was made in relatively short order, coming up with the right name for this new business took more time. On July 1, 2016, Peiffer Law Office, P.C. opened its doors, but in October 2017 it was finally Ag & Business Legal Strategies… or, as a lot of folks refer to it, ABLS.

“I worked on figuring out what I wanted my trade name to say,” Peiffer says of the wait. “I wanted people to know more about the firm by its name, as opposed to a person’s name. The ABLS name reflects what we work with here: ag people, business people, and how we help them strategize to figure out their best options, so we can empower them to pursue the best course of action.”

If he had to boil down the ABLS mission to an elevator pitch? “We help farmers and small business owners get creditors off their back, preserve their assets, and minimize their taxes.”

In 10 years, the mission hasn’t seen any changes, although technology has introduced some into the office. For example, Peiffer is looking into how to safely use artificial intelligence to help the attorneys quickly devise strategies for clients and conduct other research, while also protecting the firm’s and clients’ privacy.

With Covid in 2020, ABLS had to learn how to meet with clients and courts at a distance — and keeping these remote options in place even now helps save on some time and travel expenses for both attorneys and clients. Fortunately at the time, ABLS had already switched over to using laptops instead of desktop computers, which made it easy to convert to a remote platform for delivery of legal services.

Uncommon solutions

A few years into ABLS’s tenure, Peiffer added the tagline: An Uncommon Law Firm.

Sure, he wanted something to grab attention and differentiate his firm from others assisting farmers or small businesses. But it was also important that this hook be something true and meaningful. “We spend time learning a person’s business itself, whether it’s a farm or other kind of business,” he explains. “We don’t want to take a case to court until we have a plan of action in place.”

As it turns out, each case is unique and there is rarely, if any, opportunity to use the same plan for two different clients. So “uncommon” captures the ABLS approach just about perfectly.

An early case for the firm involved a client meeting to discuss options for restructuring farm debt in the millions of dollars. Early on, the farmer admitted to Peiffer he had forged grain contracts before handing them over to his accountant, who then unwittingly relied on those documents in preparing audited financials — which the bank used to decide to extend the farmer’s loan. There was, in fact, no grain to deliver. ABLS brought in an outside attorney to represent the farmer on potential criminal charges so all attorneys could negotiate with the bank to keep him out of prison.

There have been many situations in which clients committed major mistakes before consulting with ABLS; not all could be considered criminal. But all must be faced head-on. “The first thing to do is to minimize the creditor’s loss, in order to maximize the client’s chances of staying out of jail where possible,” says Peiffer. “Our strategy is how to put the genie back in the bottle or at least minimize the loss that’s been caused by the mistake.”

Debt restructuring and bankruptcy represent the main types of cases ABLS handles. Another significant portion of the caseload is tax planning for farmers looking into succession planning. Peiffer said a common situation is that a farmer transfers their land into a limited liability corporation, or LLC, for tax advantages and corporate liability shield. Unfortunately, when it comes time to bequeath the farm to the next generation, that LLC designation can eliminate the step-up in basis that individuals receive on the assets after death.

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Advocacy matters too

Representing clients is most of what Peiffer has done over the past decade with ABLS, but he’s also kept up with pushing for stronger federal and Iowa state legislation to protect farm and small business debtors — something he’s been passionate about since seeing how the 1980s Farm Crisis left so many producers ruined.

These include stronger protections for farmers under Chapter 12, including deprioritizing federal tax liability that used to make it impossible to confirm a Chapter 12 plan of reorganization, as the secured creditor would get all the money while the IRS and state tax authorities had veto power over the confirmation. In many instances, since there was no money to pay the taxes, the farmer’s plan would not be confirmed and the case would be dismissed. He has also helped exempt IRAs from being liquidated to pay debt in bankruptcies.

Too, Peiffer spearheaded a change of Iowa law that clarified how information about bankruptcies could be filed with court clerks as a bankruptcy transcript, which incurs a filing fee ($195) instead of paying for certified copies of the bankruptcy filings, then paying a recording fee ($5 a page, for 50 or more pages) so real estate titles can be easily transferred. In many cases, there is land in multiple counties that each require the bankruptcy data to be transferred — his legislative effort has saved many Iowans and their attorneys significant money and time.

To do his legislative work, Peiffer has maintained relationships with elected officials in Congress and the state legislature, notably U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. Just last month Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law the Uniform Assignment for Benefit of Creditors that Peiffer and his son, ABLS Associate Attorney Austin Peiffer, had worked on with State Senator Annette Sweeney to make asset liquidation simpler and less expensive for small business owners and their creditors.

Rounding out the team

When Austin joined the firm in August 2020, he was fresh off a one-year clerkship for the chief bankruptcy court judge in Chicago and law school at St. Louis’s Washington University. In addition to handling his own caseload, he has since become certified in Business Bankruptcy by the American Board of Certification (ABC), the preeminent organization for certifying bankruptcy and creditors’ rights attorneys since 1992. (Peiffer was certified in 1994.)

He has also gotten into legislative advocacy himself, and was recently named Chairman of the Commercial and Bankruptcy Law Section of the Iowa State Bar Association for 2026-27. This latest is a volunteer position leading state bankruptcy and commercial lawyers to propose new laws to help farmers and business debtors navigate bankruptcy and other court proceedings. Joe Peiffer has previously volunteered with that section and the Agricultural Law Section of the ISBA, but never led either section.

Not long ago, he read an article in People about a father-and-son vascular surgeon team, in which the elder doctor talked about how proud he was seeing his son doing complex surgery with confidence. “I feel the same way seeing Austin pick up and handle cases for our clients,” he says, satisfaction evident in his voice, and recalling how Austin as a boy used to listen when Joe would talk about problem-solving for clients. “I enjoy having Austin work with me, and I’m learning some things from him.”

He is also proud of his office staff — which includes another son, Mike — and two new attorney hires. Matt Higgins brings big-city perspective from Chicago, having worked in very large firms on large bankruptcy cases. Linda Kobliska maintains her own general law practice and lends her talents to ABLS in an Of-Counsel capacity — her background includes 25 years’ legal experience in ag-lending finance, as well as being a lifelong farmer.

Lifetime rewards

Peiffer has written about the severe shortage of attorneys practicing in rural counties in Iowa and many other states. His advice to young and other new attorneys uncertain about settling and practicing in these areas is to think about all they can contribute outside their firm. “If you work in a rural area, you will become a valued part of the community, if you’re a giver and not a taker,” he explains. Volunteer for a civic or arts organization; work with a children’s or other charity. As the residents come to trust and like you, they will trust your legal expertise to hire you, too.

“What you give will be returned to you. You’ll have a much fuller life experience if you’re a giver, not a taker.”

Practicing rural law has given Peiffer and his wife, Becky, the chance to raise a good family — including “three amazing sons (Austin, Mike, and David), 10 grandchildren, and three beautiful daughters-in-law” — and provided lessons for their sons to take what they learned growing up and put it out into the world as adults and parents themselves.

In working with farmers and business owners for 40 years to help them save as much of their assets as possible, he’s learned to advise keeping one’s eye on the prize: “I ask clients, ‘If all you’re doing is losing money, why are you doing it? What can we change that will help you not lose money, and still be able to do what you do?’” This is especially important now, with higher bankruptcy filings and predicted farm income losses in 2026 in the wake of erratic tariff use and destabilization of secure grain and pork export markets, not to mention the results of inflation. If you are a farmer or small business owner facing reduced income or soaring debt, don’t let things get worse — contact ABLS now.

(319) 363-1641