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But would a lawyer ever advise against forming an LLC for a side project that might have liabilities, or just advise on the best language and jurisdiction? To me there is a big difference between "if you really screw up, they could try to pierce the veil and go after you personally" and "if you do everything right and your business still fails, you're automatically personally liable."

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Probably not. I'm not saying "don't form LLCs" — it's probably in itself a good idea for any slightly serious project — but rather that it isn't a substitute for complying with the law.

I say this from experience because I once made exactly that mistake (formed an LLC that was otherwise unnecessary specifically to protect against potential legal consequences of a side project, only to find out from a Google Alert six months later that a lawsuit had been filed against me personally).

> find out from a Google Alert

Does this mean there was an article or something online before you were contacted about the lawsuit?

Yep, that one was an interesting surprise.

I am very curious what lawsuit was about..

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5547151

https://techcrunch.com/2013/04/14/napster-fm-is-an-open-sour...

https://www.law360.com/cases/52953cd03fdd847f5200a5c8

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