Use whenever the user wants to find, shortlist, vet, or enrich US B2B law firms — corporate, IP/patent, M&A and securities, employment, commercial litigation, regulatory/compliance, data privacy/cyber, real estate, and tax. Triggers on "find three boutique IP law firms in California", "shortlist M&A counsel for a Series-B fundraise", "patent prosecution for our hardware startup", or "pull contact info for these 10 law firm domains", even when described indirectly (outside counsel, cap-table review, GDPR/SOC2 oversight). Drives the ServiceGraph API (api.servicegraph.co) — a 100k+ US firm catalog filterable by industry, services, location, size, ratings. Skip personal/consumer legal services where the user is the end client (divorce, personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, wills) — the catalog is B2B-only. Also skip in-house GC hires, "is this NDA enforceable" DIY questions, non-US firms, individual freelancers.
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Use whenever the user wants to find, shortlist, vet, or enrich US B2B law firms — corporate, IP/patent, M&A and securities, employment, commercial litigation, regulatory/compliance, data privacy/cyber, real estate, and tax. Triggers on "find three boutique IP law firms in California", "shortlist M&A counsel for a Series-B fundraise", "patent prosecution for our hardware startup", or "pull contact info for these 10 law firm domains", even when described indirectly (outside counsel, cap-table review, GDPR/SOC2 oversight). Drives the ServiceGraph API (api.servicegraph.co) — a 100k+ US firm catalog filterable by industry, services, location, size, ratings. Skip personal/consumer legal services where the user is the end client (divorce, personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, wills) — the catalog is B2B-only. Also skip in-house GC hires, "is this NDA enforceable" DIY questions, non-US firms, individual freelancers.
Drive the ServiceGraph API (https://api.servicegraph.co) to find,
shortlist, and enrich US business-to-business law firms via the
pro_services dataset.
The catalog is B2B-only. A historical audit dropped over half of
high-rank "legal" firms because they served personal/consumer matters
(divorce, personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate
planning). The remaining catalog skews toward corporate, IP, M&A,
securities, employment, commercial litigation, regulatory, data
privacy, real-estate transactions, and corporate tax.
Always pin industry:legal. Sub-areas of law are NOT separate
tags — industry:legal is the most specific structured level — so
practice-area specialization (IP, M&A, employment, securities, etc.)
is a keyword substring search on firm text.
Any HTTP client works (curl, fetch, requests). Examples below use curl.
When NOT to use this skill
The single biggest failure mode is firing on consumer-personal
legal asks. Refuse those — don't fall back to a partial filter.
Personal/family matters where the user is the end client: divorce, child custody, family law, estate planning, wills/trusts, personal injury, criminal defense, individual bankruptcy, immigration for the user themselves, landlord/tenant disputes.
DIY legal research: "is this enforceable?", "do I owe…?", "what does this clause mean?".
the ServiceGraph MCP server (https://mcp.servicegraph.co) loaded in
your harness — this plugin's .mcp.json wires it up; OAuth 2.1 + PKCE
keeps credentials in the harness sandbox — or
a ServiceGraph API key (vk_…, minted at
https://servicegraph.co/profile/api-keys) available as
SERVICEGRAPH_API_KEY in the environment or .env.local for the REST
path (setup steps under Auth below).
An HTTP client for the REST path — the examples use curl.
Instructions
The loop is free-first: discovery, validation, search, and brief reads cost
nothing; only unlock after the user confirms the spend.
Pick the call path — the ServiceGraph MCP tools if loaded, otherwise the
REST flow (MCP server and Auth sections below).
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/fields?include_values=1 — confirm the
fields and values you plan to filter on exist.
Build the filter (Filter DSL below) and validate it with
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/check — or draft it from plain English via
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/translate-intent.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search — present the free brief cards and
let the user pick.
Quote the unlock cost (10 credits per row, 30-day TTL) and get an explicit
go-ahead.
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/unlocks with the chosen apexes; report the
revealed detail.
GET /v1/me/credits to report the remaining balance when asked.
MCP server (preferred for authed calls)
If your harness has the ServiceGraph MCP server loaded (tools
containing servicegraph), prefer those — OAuth 2.1 + PKCE keeps the
token in the harness sandbox. Otherwise use the REST flow below.
API surface (dataset id: pro_services)
Every endpoint requires the bearer (Authorization: Bearer vk_…).
No anonymous tier.
Endpoint
Cost
Use it for
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/fields[?include_values=1]
free
Confirm legal is in the industry value list.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/check?filter=…
free
Validate filter.
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/translate-intent
free
{intent} → DSL filter + sanity count.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=…&limit=
free
Brief firm cards + per-row unlock hint + total.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/:apex
free
One row brief; detail only if unlocked.
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/unlocks
10 credits / firm
{apexes:[...]} ≤100; atomic; 30-day TTL on detail.
GET /v1/me/credits
free
Balance.
Cost model. Discovery / validation / search / brief reads are
free. Detail (url, phone, email, social, address, full platforms
map) costs 10 credits per firm and lasts 30 days.
Note: service_provided tags are not populated for industry:legal
in the current catalog (Clutch and similar directories don't break
legal down further). Use barewords for practice areas.
Auth
vk_* API keys minted in the dashboard. Keep the token out of the
LLM context — never read .env* into your context; dispatch via
shell.
Try the call first through a shell wrapper that sources .env.local:
"Open https://servicegraph.co/profile/api-keys, create a
key, and add SERVICEGRAPH_API_KEY=vk_… to .env.local here
(or export it). Tell me when done. Please don't paste the key
into chat."
Retry after the user signals ready.
Filter DSL
GitHub-search-style.
filter := orExpr
orExpr := andExpr ("OR" andExpr)*
andExpr := notExpr (("AND")? notExpr)* # whitespace = implicit AND
notExpr := ("NOT" | "-") notExpr | atom
atom := "(" filter ")" | predicate
predicate:= IDENT op valueOrList | bareword
op := ":" | "=" | ">=" | "<=" | ">" | "<"
valueOrList := value ("," value)*
value := IDENT | NUMBER | tagAtEvidence
tagAtEvidence := IDENT "@" ("low"|"medium"|"high")
bareword := IDENT | NUMBER # → keyword:<bareword>
Four rules that bite: AND binds tighter than OR (use parens);
comma list = OR within one predicate; negation is -x or NOT x;
bareword = keyword search (quote multi-word phrases).
Legal-flavored examples (validate yours with /check):
Practice area → keyword mapping (sub-areas are not structured tags):
User asks for
Add as keyword(s)
IP / patents / trademarks
patent, trademark, ip
M&A / mergers and acquisitions
m&a
Securities / IPO / capital markets
securities, ipo
Employment law (employer-side)
employment, labor
Commercial litigation / disputes
litigation, commercial
Regulatory / compliance
regulatory, compliance
Data privacy / cyber / GDPR / CCPA
privacy, gdpr, ccpa, cyber
Real estate (commercial)
"real estate", "commercial real estate"
Tax (corporate)
tax
Corporate / formation / governance
corporate, formation, governance
Antitrust
antitrust
Bankruptcy (corporate)
bankruptcy
Immigration (corporate sponsorship)
immigration
Identifying firms — apex
Firms are identified by their apex domain (dlapiper.com, not
www.dlapiper.com/about).
Output
All responses are JSON.
Search returns free brief firm cards — apex, name, location, and
rating signals — plus a per-row unlock hint and the match total. Briefs
never include url, phone_primary, email_primary, legal_name,
address_full, or the full platforms map.
Unlock (POST …/unlocks) returns each unlocked firm's detail block —
contact fields, address, socials, the platforms map — plus per-item
billing; detail stays readable for 30 days.
Errors arrive as a JSON envelope
{"error": {"code": "…", "message": "…"}} — see Errors below.
Examples
A. IP / patent firm in a state
User: "Three boutique IP law firms in California for hardware-startup patent prosecution."
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:legal+state:CA+patent+-company_size_signal:large_50plus&limit=10
# Present, get pick of 3. "Unlocking 3 = 30 credits, 30-day TTL."
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/unlocks
{ "apexes": ["firm-a.com", "firm-b.com", "firm-c.com"] }
B. M&A counsel for a fundraise
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:legal+state:NY+m&a&limit=10
C. Securities / IPO experience
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:legal+securities+ipo&limit=10
D. Indirect intent — "outside counsel for GDPR/SOC2"
User: "Our compliance is getting complex — we need outside counsel for GDPR, CCPA, and SOC2 oversight."
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:legal+(gdpr OR ccpa OR privacy)+compliance&limit=10
Or use the intent translator:
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/translate-intent
{ "intent": "outside counsel for GDPR/CCPA compliance and SOC2 oversight" }
E. Employment law for a tech employer
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:legal+employment+tech+company_size_signal:medium_10_50,small_2_10&limit=10
F. Quality threshold + commercial litigation
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:legal+commercial+litigation+state:TX+rating>=4&limit=10
G. BYO apex list — enrich domains
User pastes 8–20 law-firm domains:
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/:apex per domain — free brief
(404 = not in catalog, no charge). A 404 often means the firm is
consumer-focused (divorce, PI) and was filtered out of the B2B
catalog.
User picks N to fully enrich. POST /unlocks = 10×N credits,
atomic, detail returned.
Re-runs within 30-day TTL are free.
Gotchas
Always pin industry:legal. Without it, "patent" or "m&a" as keywords leak into marketing/IT meta tags.
Refuse consumer-personal legal asks. Divorce, personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, wills, individual immigration, personal bankruptcy — NOT in the catalog. Tell the user the catalog is B2B-only and suggest elsewhere (state bar referral, Avvo). Do NOT return a partial result hoping it's close enough.
industry:legal is the only structured handle. Practice areas are keyword-only. Multi-word areas split into ANDed barewords unless quoted ("commercial litigation" → one phrase).
Catalog skews toward mid/large B2B firms. Solo practitioners and <5-attorney shops are under-represented. For "boutique", exclude company_size_signal:large_50plus rather than requiring solo.
DIY/legal-research questions ("is this NDA enforceable?", "explain fair use") are NOT procurement.
Software-product comparisons (Ironclad vs DocuSign) are NOT procurement.
Briefs DO include apex, name, location, ratings. They DON'T include url, phone_primary, email_primary, legal_name, address_full, full platforms — those require an unlock.
not_found / not_in_dataset 404 = not in pro_services. Skip; not charged.
Unlock is atomic. N apexes either all charge (up to 10×N credits) or none on 402.
