SAN FRANCISCO — How do you make a roomful of risk-averse lawyers squirm? Tell them they can’t buy their malpractice insurance.

That’s exactly what U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali did on Wednesday when he denied defunct Heller Ehrman’s request to purchase three years of malpractice insurance, agreeing with the creditors committee that the risks did not outweigh the estimated $10.2 million price tag.