Blake Lively is now asking for $8 million in legal costs from Justin Baldoni after the two settled their dispute over the making of the 2024 film It Ends With Us. The request follows a settlement reached last month, shortly before the case was set to go to trial in federal court in Manhattan.
Lively did not receive any money as part of that settlement. However, a judge had previously ruled that she is allowed to recover certain legal costs she incurred after Baldoni filed a countersuit against her. And now, she is forwarding the legal bill to Baldoni.
The requested amount was laid out in a court filing, according to AP News. It includes about $7.5 million in attorney fees from two law firms that represented Lively, plus another $500,000 in various expenses. The court still needs to give final approval to these numbers.
A legal fight that began with harassment claims and a countersuit
The dispute between the two actors started in December 2024, when Lively sued Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC. In the lawsuit, she claimed that Baldoni and the company worked with publicists to harm her public image and credibility after she privately accused him of sexual harassment on set.
Baldoni, who directed the film and also starred in it alongside Lively, denied the claims. He said the harassment allegations were made up by Lively as part of an effort to gain creative control over the project. Baldoni had reportedly complained to his agent about tension on set before the legal dispute became public.
After Lively filed her lawsuit, Baldoni responded with his own countersuit. He sued Lively, along with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist, accusing them of defamation and extortion. Judge Lewis J. Liman later dismissed Baldoni’s countersuit. He also dismissed Lively’s sexual harassment claims, saying she could not bring them because she worked on the film as an independent contractor rather than as an employee.
Even though the sexual harassment claims were thrown out, Judge Liman ruled that Lively could still recover her legal costs. He cited a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from lawsuits meant to silence or intimidate them.
According to the judge, this law requires a plaintiff to pay the defendant’s legal fees if a defamation claim brought in response to a lawsuit is dismissed. He also noted that there was no evidence Lively’s claims were driven by malice, which would have been an exception to this rule.
In the recent filing, Lively’s legal team said that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios “employed scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources.” They added, “They could have ended it (and offered to reimburse Lively) at any time. Having refused to do so, they should be ordered to reimburse Lively for all of the costs, attorney’s fees, and expenses they improperly forced her to incur.”
Reports had previously indicated that Lively walked away from the settlement with no money despite spending heavily on legal representation. One of Lively’s lawyers, Michael Gottlieb, submitted a declaration outlining his billable hours. He said he charged an average hourly rate of $2,187, a discount from his usual rate of $2,795. His work defending against the countersuit came to $457,000 in total.
The filing requests $4.5 million for Gottlieb’s firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and $3 million for the firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. While the judge has allowed Lively to recover these legal costs, he had earlier rejected her request to triple any damages or seek punitive damages, saying those requests did not fit within federal procedural rules.
Published: Jul 1, 2026 12:00 pm