Avvo Lawyers Scraper

Extract comprehensive attorney profiles from Avvo with detailed practice areas, ratings, reviews, contact information, and professional credentials.

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Overview

The Avvo Lawyers Scraper extracts structured data from Avvo.com, the leading online legal directory platform. Access detailed attorney profiles including practice areas, client reviews, ratings, contact information, bar admissions, education, and professional experience.

Key Benefits

• Legal Research - Build comprehensive attorney databases for research and analysis
• Lead Generation - Find qualified attorneys by practice area and location
• Market Intelligence - Analyze legal services market trends and competition
• Directory Services - Power legal directory platforms with fresh, accurate data
• Competitive Analysis - Monitor attorney rankings and review trends
• Client Matching - Connect clients with attorneys based on specialization

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Features

Data Extraction

Extract complete attorney profiles with:

• Personal Information - Attorney name and profile URL
• Professional Ratings - Avvo rating (1-10 scale) and review count
• Practice Areas - Specializations and areas of legal expertise
• Contact Details - Phone numbers, email addresses, office locations
• Credentials - Years licensed, bar admissions, education
• Languages - Languages spoken for client communication
• Professional Bio - Attorney background and experience
• Awards & Recognition - Professional achievements and honors

Search Options

Filter attorney searches by:

• Practice Area - Bankruptcy, family law, criminal defense, personal injury, real estate, business law, immigration, employment, estate planning, traffic tickets, and more
• Location - State-level or city-level targeting
• Custom URLs - Direct Avvo directory URLs for precise searches

Performance

• Multiple Extraction Methods - API-first HTTP, embedded JSON/JSON-LD, and HTML parsing with automatic fallback
• Cloudflare Bypass - Proxy-aware HTTP with retries and session rotation
• Concurrent Processing - Fast parallel scraping with configurable concurrency
• Smart Deduplication - Automatic duplicate removal across pages
• Profile Enrichment - Optional deep profile extraction from detail pages

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Quick Start

Input Configuration

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.avvo.com/bankruptcy-debt-lawyer/al.html" }
  ],
  "city": "birmingham",
  "maxLawyers": 50,
  "includeReviews": true,
  "includeContactInfo": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Run on Apify Platform

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console
2. Configure your search parameters (practice area, state, optional city)
3. Set maximum lawyers to scrape
4. Enable profile enrichment options if needed
5. Click "Start" and wait for results
6. Download data in JSON, CSV, Excel, or other formats

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
startUrls	Array	? No	List of Avvo directory URLs to scrape. If provided, practiceArea/state are ignored.
startUrl	String	❌ No	Direct Avvo directory URL (e.g., https://www.avvo.com/bankruptcy-debt-lawyer/al.html). If provided, practiceArea and state are ignored.
practiceArea	String	⚠️ Conditional	Practice area slug (e.g., bankruptcy-debt, family, criminal-defense, personal-injury). Required if startUrl not provided.
state	String	⚠️ Conditional	Two-letter US state code (e.g., al, ca, ny, tx, fl). Required if startUrl not provided.
city	String	❌ No	Optional city name to narrow search within state (e.g., birmingham, montgomery)
maxLawyers	Integer	❌ No	Maximum number of profiles to scrape (default: 50, 0 = unlimited)
includeReviews	Boolean	❌ No	Extract client reviews and detailed ratings (default: true)
includeContactInfo	Boolean	❌ No	Fetch additional contact details from profile pages (default: true)
debugHtml	Boolean	? No	Save debug HTML when extraction fails or blocks occur (default: false)
proxyConfiguration	Object	❌ No	Proxy settings for bypassing protection (recommended: useApifyProxy: true)

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Output Data

Each lawyer profile includes:

{
  "name": "John Smith",
  "rating": 9.5,
  "reviewCount": 47,
  "practiceAreas": ["Bankruptcy", "Debt Collection Defense", "Foreclosure Defense"],
  "location": "Birmingham, AL 35203",
  "phone": "(205) 555-0123",
  "email": "contact@example.com",
  "website": "https://www.example.com",
  "yearsLicensed": 15,
  "barAdmissions": ["Alabama State Bar", "U.S. District Court"],
  "languages": ["English", "Spanish"],
  "profileUrl": "https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/12345-john-smith.html",
  "bio": "Experienced bankruptcy attorney serving Birmingham and surrounding areas...",
  "education": ["Harvard Law School, J.D., 2008", "Yale University, B.A., 2005"],
  "awards": ["Super Lawyers Rising Star 2022", "Avvo Client's Choice 2023"],
  "reviews": [],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-01-02T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Field Descriptions

Field	Type	Description
name	String	Attorney full name
rating	Number	Avvo rating (1-10 scale)
reviewCount	Integer	Number of client reviews
practiceAreas	Array	Legal specializations
location	String	Office address (city, state, ZIP)
phone	String	Contact phone number
email	String	Contact email address
website	String	Attorney or firm website URL
yearsLicensed	Integer	Years practicing law
barAdmissions	Array	State bar and court admissions
languages	Array	Languages spoken
profileUrl	String	Avvo profile URL
bio	String	Professional biography
education	Array	Law school and undergraduate education
awards	Array	Professional recognition and awards
reviews	Array	Review objects or snippets when available
scrapedAt	String	ISO timestamp of data extraction

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Export Formats

Download scraped data in multiple formats:

• JSON - Structured data for applications and APIs
• CSV - Spreadsheet-compatible format for Excel/Google Sheets
• Excel - Native .xlsx format with proper formatting
• XML - Enterprise system integration
• RSS - Feed-based updates
• HTML - Web-ready formatted output

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Use Cases

Legal Research & Analytics

Analyze attorney demographics, practice area distribution, rating trends, and geographic coverage for market research and competitive intelligence.

Lead Generation

Build targeted lists of attorneys by practice area and location for business development, referral networks, and partnership opportunities.

Directory & Platform Development

Power legal directory websites, attorney matching platforms, and client referral services with comprehensive, up-to-date attorney data.

Compliance & Background Checks

Verify attorney credentials, bar admissions, and professional standing for client vetting and compliance purposes.

Marketing & Business Intelligence

Track attorney ratings, review trends, and service offerings to inform marketing strategies and identify market opportunities.

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Technical Architecture

Multi-Strategy Extraction

The scraper employs an API-first HTTP pipeline with layered fallbacks:

1. JSON API (Primary Method)

Direct HTTP calls to internal JSON endpoints when available (user-supplied or discovered). Fastest and most reliable when present.

Advantages:

• Structured JSON output
• No rendering overhead
• High accuracy and speed

2. Embedded JSON + JSON-LD (Secondary Method)

Parses embedded JSON blobs (e.g., __NEXT_DATA__, inline JSON) and JSON-LD markup from HTML.

Advantages:

• Structured data without browsers
• Resilient to minor markup changes

3. HTML Parsing with Cheerio (Fallback Method)

Uses selector-based parsing on HTTP-fetched HTML when JSON is not available.

Advantages:

• Works on any page structure
• Multiple selector strategies
• Robust against site changes

Cloudflare Bypass Strategy

This Actor relies on proxy-aware HTTP, session rotation, and exponential backoff to reduce blocks. For best results, use residential proxies and keep concurrency reasonable.

Performance Optimizations

Optimization	Impact	Implementation
API-First HTTP	10-50x faster	Direct JSON endpoint calls
Embedded JSON/JSON-LD	5-20x faster	HTML JSON parsing
Concurrent Requests	3-5x faster	Parallel processing
Profile Enrichment	Detailed data	Batch HTTP requests

Quality Assurance

• Input Validation - All input parameters validated before execution
• Duplicate Detection - URL-based deduplication across pagination
• Error Handling - Graceful fallbacks for failed requests
• Data Cleaning - Whitespace trimming and text normalization
• Logging - Comprehensive logging with sensitive data censoring
• Debug Mode - Automatic HTML capture when extraction fails

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Configuration Tips

Maximizing Results

• Use specific practice areas for targeted results
• Enable includeContactInfo for complete profiles
• Set reasonable maxLawyers limits for faster runs
• Use Apify Proxy (residential) for best reliability
• Allow sufficient time for profile enrichment

Performance Tuning

• Small Runs (<50 lawyers): ~2-3 minutes
• Medium Runs (50-200 lawyers): ~5-10 minutes
• Large Runs (200+ lawyers): ~15-30 minutes

Execution time increases when includeContactInfo is enabled due to individual profile page fetching.

Practice Area Slugs

Common practice area slugs for search:

• bankruptcy-debt - Bankruptcy and debt relief
• family - Family law and divorce
• criminal-defense - Criminal defense
• personal-injury - Personal injury and accidents
• real-estate - Real estate law
• business - Business and corporate law
• immigration - Immigration law
• employment - Employment and labor law
• estate-planning - Estate planning and probate
• traffic-tickets - Traffic violations

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API Integration

Node.js Example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('YOUR_ACTOR_ID').call({
    practiceArea: 'bankruptcy-debt',
    state: 'al',
    city: 'birmingham',
    maxLawyers: 100,
    includeContactInfo: true
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Scraped ${items.length} lawyers`);

Python Example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_API_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('YOUR_ACTOR_ID').call(run_input={
    'practiceArea': 'family',
    'state': 'ca',
    'city': 'los-angeles',
    'maxLawyers': 50
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(f"Scraped {len(items)} lawyers")

cURL Example

curl -X POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_ACTOR_ID/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "practiceArea": "criminal-defense",
    "state": "ny",
    "maxLawyers": 75
  }'

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Scheduling & Automation

Automated Data Collection

Set up scheduled runs to maintain fresh attorney data:

1. Navigate to Schedules in Apify Console
2. Create new schedule (daily, weekly, custom cron)
3. Configure input parameters
4. Enable notifications for run completion
5. Set up webhooks for automated data processing

Integration Options

• Webhooks - Trigger actions on completion
• Zapier - Connect to 5000+ apps without coding
• Make (Integromat) - Build complex automation workflows
• Google Sheets - Auto-export to spreadsheets
• Slack/Discord - Receive notifications with results
• Email - Automated reports via email

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Compliance & Ethics

Responsible Data Collection

This scraper extracts publicly available attorney information from Avvo's directory for legitimate business purposes including:

• Legal research and market analysis
• Attorney credential verification
• Directory and platform development
• Lead generation for legal services

Best Practices

• Use scraped data in accordance with applicable laws and regulations
• Respect attorney privacy and professional information
• Implement rate limiting and respectful scraping practices
• Use proxies to avoid server overload
• Do not scrape for spamming or harassment purposes
• Comply with data protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)

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Troubleshooting

No Lawyers Found

Possible causes:

• Invalid practice area slug or state code
• Cloudflare blocking (enable residential proxies)
• No lawyers match search criteria
• Page structure changed (check DEBUG_PAGE_HTML output)

Solutions:

• Verify practice area slug matches Avvo's URL format
• Use Apify residential proxies for better reliability
• Try different practice areas or locations
• Enable debugHtml to inspect blocked pages
• Check Actor logs for specific error messages

Incomplete Data

Possible causes:

• includeContactInfo disabled
• Profile pages blocked by Cloudflare
• Missing data on source profiles

Solutions:

• Enable includeContactInfo for complete profiles
• Use residential proxies for detail page fetching
• Some attorneys may not provide all information publicly

Slow Performance

Possible causes:

• Large maxLawyers value
• Profile enrichment enabled
• Network latency

Solutions:

• Reduce maxLawyers for faster runs
• Disable includeContactInfo for listing-only data
• Use faster proxy groups if available

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FAQ

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Support

Need Help?

• Documentation: Apify Docs
• Community: Discord Server
• Issues: Report bugs via Actor feedback form
• Contact: Reach out through Apify Console messaging

Rate This Actor

If you find this scraper valuable for your legal research or business needs, please leave a rating and review on the Apify platform!

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License

This Actor is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Keywords

avvo scraper, lawyer scraper, attorney directory, legal data extraction, lawyer profiles, attorney search, legal services, law firm data, bar admissions, practice areas, attorney ratings, legal directory scraper, lawyer database, attorney leads

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