Game mechanics aren't bugged, but working as intended.
As you absorb wealth from the community, it disappears and is not replinished, and you only get 10% of the current wealth, not the orginal wealth, per turn.
Expenses appear to be going up because expense are calculated relative to how far you are into a turn, so if you hire a lawyer half way through a turn you only get charged half the cost that turn, but on the next turn you will get charged the full cost. This was done to prevent abuse where people would hire all the staff at the begining of the turn, and fire them all before the end, and thus have no net expenses.
As far as lawyers go, if you are playing as a snake cult or on easy, then lawyers will prevent twice as much ATF aggro as they would on hard, thus requiring about 1 lawyer for every 10 (or 20 if you're a snake cult) other staff in a city block with 50% converts.
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