Lively-Baldoni Hearing: Attorneys Accuse Each Other of Trying Case in Press
A judge warned Monday he may move up the March 2026 trial date between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, as their attorneys accused each other of improperly seeking to sway public opinion.
Judge Lewis J. Liman presided over the first hearing in the sprawling litigation between the two “It Ends With Us” co-stars in federal court in New York. Neither of them appeared in the courtroom.
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Michael Gottlieb, Lively’s attorney, argued that Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman had made inflammatory public comments attacking Lively’s character, and urged the judge to impose the standard attorney conduct rules on the parties.
“You can’t unring the bell,” he argued.
Freedman countered that the PR battle was “not started by us,” saying that Lively’s team had worked with the New York Times to launch harmful allegations against Baldoni. He also pointed to subsequent hostile comments made by Lively’s representatives, including when they referred to him as an abuser who engages in “DARVO” — “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.”
The judge ordered both sides to adhere to the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, which forbids attorneys from making character attacks on their opponents, and from making comments that have a “substantial likelihood” of prejudicing a jury.
But the rules also allow attorneys to talk to the press to protect their clients from adverse publicity, and Freedman has said he is fine with those rules.
The whole case is about adverse publicity, so it’s no surprise that became a key issue early on. Lively is accusing Baldoni and others of smearing her in the press after she complained about sexual harassment on set. Baldoni fired back with defamation lawsuits against her, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times, while Freedman has waged an aggressive PR campaign to push back against her claims.
Lively’s lawyers first sought to rein in Freedman after he released footage from “It Ends With Us,” which he argued disproved Lively’s harassment claim. They also raised concerns about Freedman’s plans to set up a website — thelawsuitinfo.com — that hosts court documents about the case.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Liman said he was adopting the attorney conduct rule “with reluctance.” He said he would not move up the trial date unless the press battle continued.
The judge did not prohibit either side from publishing public information or talking to reporters. The rules do prohibit the release of evidence that would be both prejudicial to a jury and inadmissible at trial. By imposing the rule, the judge has essentially put the parties on notice that future violations could result in sanctions.
After the hearing, Freedman told an array of cameras outside the courthouse that he was pleased with the outcome.
“Our clients are devastated and want to move the case along as quickly as possible,” he said. “We just couldn’t be more pleased with how the case was handled today, how it was managed. We’re going to move as quickly as we possibly can and prove our innocence, in a world where sometimes people judge you before they give you a chance. And we’re going to change that.”
Lively’s attorneys, Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, said they, too, were satisfied with the hearing.
“We are pleased with the result of today’s hearing and eager to move forward immediately with discovery in this case,” they said. “The Court granted our request that all attorneys in the matter actually follow the rule of law and not make any statements that could prejudice a jury. This case deals with serious allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. We will hold the defendants accountable, and we are confident that once all the evidence is submitted in this matter, Ms. Lively will prevail.”
On Friday, Baldoni’s team amended its complaint to add defamation allegations against the New York Times. Baldoni’s lawyers said Monday they will drop a separate defamation suit against the Times, which was filed in December in state court in Los Angeles.
The updated lawsuit accuses the Times of working with Lively’s team to defame Baldoni, by taking text messages from his PR team out of context. Baldoni’s team argues that metadata on the Times’ website shows that the paper had access to Lively’s civil rights complaint well before the Times broke its story on Dec. 21.
Updated with additional comment from Lively’s attorneys.
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