"But then, one of my attorneys advised me against this. Basically, the concern was that if I publish something publicly about my understanding of GDPR, and it contains an error of understanding (after all, IANAL), then I could be held accountable for that. That felt really crappy to me -- after all, I'm just doing the best I can, and it seems like there's a lot of misinformation about GDPR out there on the web. Does anyone know anything much about this? To what degree can a company executive get him or herself in trouble for publishing a document that summarizes his or her own understanding of the effect of regulation, if the executive's company is potentially affected by said regulation?"
To me this sounds like typical lawyer paranoia. In what way could you be held accountable for publish your interpretation? You are not giving legal advice.
It may or may not be overly paranoid, but I think the risk would essentially be that a publicly stated incorrect interpretation could be successfully used in court as evidence of failure to comply. I doubt the executive themselves would be held directly liable or be personally punished, it's just that it's a risk for the company that doesn't have any tangible benefit from a legal standpoint - so from a lawyer's perspective, why do it?
That being said - it seems unlikely that his understanding would be inaccurate given the amount of time and research and he claims to have done, so the actual risk could be negligible. It might even be conceivable that such a public statement could be used as legal evidence in the company's favor showing that the CEO took every practical step possible to comply to the best of a reasonable and well-informed person's understanding of the law. The public relations boost of giving out good knowledge/guidance (attracting talent, customers/clients) might be sufficiently beneficial to justify the risk.
To me this sounds like typical lawyer paranoia. In what way could you be held accountable for publish your interpretation? You are not giving legal advice.