New Delhi, June 4 -- For a growing number of securities law firms today, the most valuable legal battle is the one that never reaches a courtroom. For years, they thrived on a steady stream of enforcement actions, appeals and regulatory battles. Today, many of them are discovering that the bigger opportunity lies not in fighting the capital markets regulator, but in helping companies avoid getting into trouble in the first place.

A clutch of Indian law firms, who practice securities law, are pivoting their attention to advisory services, as litigation work has been shrinking over the last two years. A combination of increasingly detailed investigations by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and a growing preference among cl...