I think what a lot of people don't understand is that a lawyers job is to provide advise, not to make decisions.
The minimum liability comes from doing nothing, so the default advice is "Don't."
You must be working in a very unregulated industry if that’s true!
"How do I not get sued for my new medical device?"
"Don't sell it to anybody."
In-house counsel is a little different but again even at places like IBM the lawyers could not get away with blocking meaningful business