IPO price tag: What law firms billed companies in 2024–25 listings

Legal advisory fees in India’s IPO market during FY 2024–25 reflected both fixed thresholds and sharp variations based on deal complexity. Data from final offer documents filed with the Registrar of Companies shows that fees are shaped less by sheer issue size and more by regulatory challenges and the nature of transactions.

Yash J Ashar, Senior Partner at Cyril Amarchand while speaking to Bar & Bench explained the law firm fees model during a capital markets transaction. Read his interview here.

This is largely based on a lumpsum model with well identified milestones. Some sectors, such as real estate and infrastructure, require more work and the fees can be higher. Working with new-age technology companies is also interesting as they are more flat and decision making is more involved.  

One would hope that lawyers could also charge fees based on the issue size, but alas such things don’t happen!

The market has established baseline law firm fees, irrespective of IPO scale.

For analytical purposes, IPOs with issue size above ₹5,000 crore are classified as large offerings, while those between ₹1,000–5,000 crore are treated as medium.

Swiggy’s ₹11,327 crore IPO commanded the highest fee of ₹207.09 million (₹20.7 crore or $2.3 million). The scale of the mandate reflected not just the company’s market position but also the unique regulatory challenges of being the first successful listing under SEBI’s new confidential filing framework.

Fees in Large IPOs (Rs. 5,000+ crore)

Other large IPOs also saw substantial fee payouts: Hyundai’s ₹27,858 crore issue (handled by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Latham & Watkins) drew fees of ₹63.89 million, HDB Financial’s ₹12,500 crore offering (Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas) saw fees of ₹150.5 million, while JSA billed ₹23.13 million for NTPC Green Energy’s ₹10,000 crore IPO.

Fees in Medium IPOs (Rs. 1,000-5,000 crore)

In the medium segment, law firms continued to command high billing ratios: FirstCry’s ₹4,194 crore issue (SAM, Sidley Austin) involved fees of ₹153.04 million (0.36% of issue size), while Anthem Biosciences (Trilegal) paid ₹97.96 million on a ₹3,395 crore issue. Khaitan & Co’s representation of Vikram Solar’s ₹2,100 crore IPO resulted in fees of ₹64.5 million.

The IPO market continues to be dominated by a handful of law firms. Trilegal, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and JSA collectively handled around 56% of all IPO mandates during FY 2024–25. Within this group, Trilegal, CAM and SAM alone accounted for approximately 44% of the total mandates.

Boutique firms, on the other hand, remained active in the sub-₹500 crore IPO category, where cost considerations and leaner disclosure requirements make their involvement more viable.

Legal advisory fees were sourced from standalone legal fee disclosures available in the final offer documents filed with the Registrar of Companies. To ensure attribution accuracy, transactions where legal fees were clubbed together with those of auditors, company secretaries, or other professionals were excluded from the analysis. The report presents fee data both in absolute terms (₹ million) and as a percentage of the total issue size, enabling clear comparisons across transactions of varying scales.

Download the full IPO report on Law firms FOR THE ISSUER AND BANKERS IN 2024-25 here.