Small firms can't possibly staff the IPO. They know that. Enough teams have died unknown deaths bidding on PSU tenders for "foot in the door".
Big firms don't need LIC to boost their cap marks practice, they have enough credibility as is. Only issue is pay. Given the bohemoth size of LIC and lawyers require to staff the issue, gormint is offering a pittance. Give them competitive rates and big caps on hours, everyone will jump at it.
LIC's IPO will be impossible for a regular ream to handle, it'll need a massive team of 8-10 cap marks lawyers working exclusively on this deal for months on end, and will require nearly double that many during crunch hours. Only a few firms have that sort of manpower and they'll effectively have to set aside every other high paying IPO mandate to work on a thankless sarkari mandate. No wonder they can't get a law firm to take up this suicidal task. Just the coordination with stakeholders at the time of listing will cost enough hours to bankrupt a small company.
Big firms don't need LIC to boost their cap marks practice, they have enough credibility as is. Only issue is pay. Given the bohemoth size of LIC and lawyers require to staff the issue, gormint is offering a pittance. Give them competitive rates and big caps on hours, everyone will jump at it.