SIC and NAICS codes for law offices
The industry classification codes that business databases and government statistics use to select law firms.
B2B Contact Data Providers and Data Quality
B2B contact data is a set of fields that identifies a person at an organization and reaches them there: name, job title, employer, email address, direct phone and postal address. Providers compile it from public registries, company websites and licensed files, then check each field. Records age as people change jobs: the BLS measured median tenure in legal occupations, which include lawyers, at 4.0 years in January 2024. Compare providers on sources, field coverage and the date of the last verification.
Key facts
- Core fields
- Name, job title, employer, email, direct phone, postal address
- Median tenure, legal occupations
- 4.0 years in January 2024, down from 4.7 in January 2022 (BLS)
- USPS change-of-address file
- About 160 million permanent records (NCOALink)
- Permanent email failure
- SMTP reply code in the 5yz range
- California business contacts
- Personal information under the CCPA since January 1, 2023
Definition
What is B2B contact data?
B2B contact data is information that identifies people in their work roles and the channels that reach them, stored as records made of named fields. A record pairs a person's name and job title with an employer and adds contact points such as a work email address, a direct phone number and a mailing address.
Contact fields describe the person, and firmographic fields describe the organization: industry classification, company size and location. Records about regulated professions add license fields, so a lawyer record carries fields such as the bar admission state and bar number next to the firm name and practice area.
Fill rate, also called field coverage, is the share of records in which a field holds a value. A database can hold a mailing address on every record and an email address on a smaller share, which is why one overall quality figure hides the gaps a specific campaign depends on.
Sourcing
How do B2B contact data providers build their databases?
B2B contact data providers build databases by combining public records, business web pages and files licensed from other data companies, then linking the entries that describe the same person. Each source contributes different fields, and that mix explains why coverage differs from one field to the next.
Public registries supply license and address fields. The New York State Unified Court System publishes its attorney registration records on data.ny.gov, updated quarterly, with columns for registration number, company name, street address, phone number, year admitted and registration status, and the dataset has no email address column.
Company websites, business listings and professional profiles add job titles, practice descriptions and email addresses where people publish them. Terms of use on websites and directories can restrict automated collection and commercial reuse, which is a contract question separate from privacy law.
Licensed files move between companies. In its May 2014 study of 9 data brokers, the Federal Trade Commission found that 7 of them had shared information with another data broker in the study.
Record linkage, also called merge/purge or deduplication, joins those inputs into 1 record per person. A matching error in that step leaves duplicates or blends 2 people into 1 record, so the deduplication method belongs on a provider checklist next to the source list.
Fields and checks
Which B2B contact data fields matter, and how is each one checked?
The fields that carry outreach are email address, direct phone, postal address, job title and employer, and each one needs its own check. Email addresses are tested against the receiving mail server, postal addresses against USPS reference files, phone numbers by line type, and titles against the employer's current pages or a licensing registry.
Each field fails in its own way, so per-field checks and a dated verification describe a file better than a single database-wide quality claim.
| Field | Used for | Quality check | Rule or standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work email address | Email outreach | Syntax, mail server lookup and SMTP reply; catch-all domains marked separately | RFC 5321 reply codes |
| Direct phone number | Calls and texts | Line type: wireless or landline | 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) consent rule for wireless numbers |
| Postal address | Direct mail | Address standardization and change-of-address matching | USPS CASS and NCOALink |
| Job title and role | Reaching decision makers | Match against the employer's current website or directory | Provider method, disclosed on request |
| Employer and website | Account selection | Active domain and a matching organization name | Provider method, disclosed on request |
| License fields, such as a bar number | Segmenting regulated professions | Status and admission data from the issuing registry | The licensing body's public records |
| Last verified date | Judging freshness | Date of the most recent check on the record | Provider disclosure in the delivered file |
Verification and decay
How is B2B contact data verified, and why does it go out of date?
Providers verify B2B contact data by querying mail servers, matching postal addresses to USPS files and checking professional details against the issuing registry. Each check is a dated snapshot: people change employers, offices relocate and mail domains close, so a field starts aging on the day it passes.
An SMTP check connects to the domain's mail server and reads its reply to a recipient address, ending the session before any message is sent. RFC 5321 calls a 5yz reply a permanent negative completion and tells the client not to repeat the exact request in the same sequence, while a 4yz reply is a transient negative completion that the client should try again.
A catch-all domain routes mail for incorrect or nonexistent addresses to 1 designated mailbox, so the server accepts every address and the check cannot confirm the individual person. A file that marks catch-all results in a separate column lets the buyer choose how to send to those records.
Postal checks rely on USPS reference data. CASS certification evaluates address-matching software on ZIP + 4, delivery point and carrier route coding rather than grading a mailer's own file, and the Postal Service requires any mailing claimed at an automation price to come from a list matched and coded by CASS-certified methods. The NCOALink product is a dataset of approximately 160 million permanent change-of-address records filed with the Postal Service by individuals, families and businesses.
Job changes move people out of their records. In its September 26, 2024 release, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported median tenure with the current employer of 3.9 years for all wage and salary workers and 4.0 years for legal occupations in January 2024, down from 4.7 years for legal occupations in January 2022. The guide to how quickly business contact data decays connects that turnover to bounce rates.
Buyer checklist
What should you ask a B2B contact data provider before buying?
Ask a B2B contact data provider where each field comes from, how and when it was verified, and what share of records carries it. Then request a sample from your own segment and read the license terms on use, sharing and removal requests before paying.
These 7 questions to ask a contact data provider turn a sales claim into facts a buyer can test. A sample answers the coverage and verification questions directly, because the buyer can count empty fields and run its own checks on the rows.
Vetting a B2B contact data provider ends with the license, because the license decides who can use the file, for how long and in which channels. The privacy and telephone rules named on this page, such as the CCPA and the UK GDPR, are general information and not legal advice.
- Ask which sources supplied each field, and which fields came from licensed third-party files.
- Request fill rates field by field instead of a single quality figure for the whole database.
- Check the verification method for email, phone and postal fields, and the date of the last run.
- Confirm how catch-all and role-based email addresses are marked in the file.
- Request a sample drawn from your own industry, role and location selections.
- Read the license for the term of use, resale limits and sharing with agencies.
- Ask how the provider records removal requests and passes them on to existing buyers.
Related lists and guides
Where this segment connects
Test the checklist on a sample of attorney records
Run these questions against a free sample of US lawyer records in the same columns as a purchased file, including the email status column that flags catch-all addresses and the date of the last verification. The section on choosing a lawyer email list vendor applies the same checks to attorney data.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Is B2B contact data personal information?
Yes, when it describes a named person. California's CCPA has covered business contacts who live in California since its B2B exemption expired on December 31, 2022, and the UK ICO applies the UK GDPR to named business contacts.
Buyers weighing those laws can start with the legal questions before buying an email list.
What is the difference between a compiled list and an opt-in list?
A compiled list gathers contact details from public and business sources without the contacts signing up for anything. An opt-in list holds only people who asked a specific sender to email them, so its consent belongs to that sender.
What is a role-based email address?
A role-based address belongs to a function rather than a person, such as info@ or billing@. It reaches an inbox shared by staff instead of a named decision maker, so a well-built file marks it apart from personal work addresses.
How often is B2B contact data refreshed?
Each provider sets its own schedule, so ask for the date of the last full verification. The attorney database sold on this site is deduplicated and refreshed monthly, and its last full verification finished on September 10, 2026.
How much does B2B contact data cost?
Prices follow each provider's model. Lawyer records on this site are quoted per order from 4 inputs: record count, selected fields, practice area and state, with a 1,000-record minimum and a one-time payment instead of a subscription.
Sources
- Employee Tenure in 2024 (news release), US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024-09-26. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- Table 6. Median years of tenure with current employer for employed wage and salary workers by occupation, selected years, 2014-2024, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024-09-26. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- NCOALink, United States Postal Service, PostalPro, 2026-09-10. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- CASS, United States Postal Service, PostalPro, 2026-09-10. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- RFC 5321: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, IETF, RFC Editor, 2008-10. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- Get misaddressed email in a catch-all mailbox, Google Workspace Admin Help, 2026-09-10. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- FTC Recommends Congress Require the Data Broker Industry to be More Transparent, Federal Trade Commission, 2014-05-27. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- NYS Attorney Registrations (dataset metadata), NYS Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration, via data.ny.gov, 2026-09-15. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), State of California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, 2026-08-28. Accessed 2026-09-16.
- Business-to-business marketing, Information Commissioner's Office (UK). Accessed 2026-09-16.
- 47 U.S.C. § 227 – Restrictions on use of telephone equipment, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (US Code text). Accessed 2026-09-16.