"I want to keep this out of the hands of lawyers" is almost universally understood to mean "please do what I say so that I don't have to sue you, which is what I will do if you do not comply".
Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug
by xp_cmdshell on Thursday December 17, 2015 @11:32PM
(#10756648)
Maybe someday the response to this sort of threat will be "In the interests of sharing, I already passed on this information to your favorite class action law firm and the media. It's already in the hands of lawyers and your company is already being sued."
In case it isn't clear, most people will interpret "I want to keep this out of the hands of lawyers" exactly as a threat to start legal action. To be honest I'm not really sure how else it should be interpreted?