Twenty plus years leading high-functioning legal teams at top tech companies taught me that the fastest way for an in-house lawyer to become irrelevant is a one-word answer. "No" ends the conversation. So the rule on my team was simple: if you can't approve something as proposed, you owe the business the version you can approve. "Yes, if you…”
It works because it keeps counsel in the room where decisions actually get made. A business team that gets a "no" stops asking questions and starts working around you. A business team that gets a "yes, if" brings you the next one earlier. Saying no is easy. Shaping the yes is the job.