I don't know if it has to be prior to filing the complaint, but I doubt contacting attorneys for the purpose of legal representation counts. An attorney needs an OK license or permission to defend you in state court there. It's not easy finding a pool of OK-licensed attorneys living in other places.
The onus for proving jurisdiction falls on the plaintiff. As long as you personally don't communicate w/ their attorneys, inform them of in-state contacts, or file an answer w/ the court, they couldn't use this extra info to support their argument for jurisdiction.
This is just an opinion and not legal advice.