Rise in white-collar crimes drive up legal expenses

A rapidly changing regulatory environment marked by more complex rules, coupled with increasing incidence of fraud and white-collar crime, are driving up legal expenses at Indian companies, making it a particularly lucrative time for the practice of law. And an economic revival that’s underway is expected to drive up demand for lawyers’ services—and fees. Legal expenses increased 22.15% to Rs.16,592 crore in 2013-14 at 312 firms in the BSE 500 index for which data is available. The increase, driven by a mix of both litigation and consultancy fees, far outpaced a 12.4% rise in total expenses and 12.3% rise in sales at these companies.

Read the LiveMint news report here.