Our promise

Why this directory is free, and why it stays free.

Most online lawyer directories make money one of two ways. They sell listings — paid tiers that get better placement, longer visibility, and more outbound links. Or they sell leads — charging the lawyer per enquiry, regardless of whether anyone gets help. Either way, the order of names you see is the order someone paid for.

That's a perfectly legal model. But it's not a community directory. It's a marketing product dressed up as one. The moment you understand the listings are sorted by payment rather than merit, the trust dies.

Two patterns to watch for

Almost every existing Iranian-diaspora lawyer directory falls into one of two models. Both are commercial. Both sort lawyers by who has paid.

The older model is openly tiered. Free listings get reduced visibility — limited time on country and practice-area pages, no SEO benefit, often no clickable link to the lawyer's own website. Paid tiers, typically branded "Gold" or "Platinum", buy higher placement, permanent listing, and outbound links that count for Google. Pricing is rarely shown on the website — you have to contact the operator, and rates vary by country and by the rank the lawyer wants. Some run waiting lists for premium slots: when a paid spot opens, the lawyer willing to pay the most wins it.

The newer model is dressed up better. The site looks modern, the homepage says "join free", and the upgrade flow sits one step removed — "Claim Your Spot", "Get Featured", "Boost Your Profile". Same underlying mechanic: paid users get visibility the free users don't.

Both models are legitimate businesses. Neither is a community directory. We set out not to replicate either.

We've made four rules to keep this directory honest. They are the whole product.

Free, forever

No listing fees. No "Gold" or "Platinum" tiers. No free trials that quietly downgrade you after 90 days. If you're a verified Iranian lawyer, you're listed for as long as you want to be.

No paid placements

Nobody pays for a higher position on a country page, a city page, or a practice-area page. Listings are sorted by location and recency. Two lawyers in the same city appear in the same order to everyone, every time. There are no "premium" slots, no "boosted" listings, no waiting lists for higher ranks.

Verification means something specific

Before publishing a listing we sight the lawyer's practising certificate and confirm it against the regulator's public register. Every profile shows the verification date and the regulator's name. We re-verify every twelve months. If you see "Verified" on a profile here, you can check what we checked.

What "verified" doesn't mean: that the lawyer is good at their job, free of complaints, or right for your matter. It means their registration was valid on the date shown. The full methodology is on the verification page.

No hidden pricing

Because there is no pricing. No tiers, no contact-us-for-rates, no per-country variations. Run by volunteers as a community resource. Hosted on Cloudflare's free tier. The annual cost to run this is the price of the domain.

If we ever change this

If we ever introduce a commercial element to the site — sponsored content, paid job postings, anything — we'll publish it on this page in writing and email every listed lawyer first. We will never sell ranking or placement. That's the line.

What you can do

If you're a lawyer who should be listed here, add your profile. If you know lawyers who should be, send them the link. If you find a listing that looks wrong, tell us. If you want to write a community article, email contact@iranlawyers.org.