'Extremely excessive' research, fees alleged in 'It Ends With Us' litigation
Blake Lively leaving court in February. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
With representation from two large law firms, is more than $7 million in attorney fees, pretrial, excessive?
Yes, and it’s “anything but a typical fee motion,” lawyers for actor and director Justin Baldoni, who is involved in litigation with actress Blake Lively, wrote in a July 13 court filing. The dispute stems from It Ends With Us, a 2024 film Baldoni directed, starring Lively. In December 2024 she sued him, his production company and his publicists, alleging they’d created smear campaign after she accused Baldoni of sexual harassment.
In May the parties filed a motion to settle the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York lawsuit, in which Lively retained her rights to attorney fees, according to a June 12 order.
Baldoni is represented by Liner Freedman Taitelman + Cooley, and Meister Seelig & Schuster.
“The most cursory review of Lively’s submission shows multiple lawyers at the same hearings, numerous charges for lawyers conferencing, conferring or strategizing with one another, and to put it mildly, extremely excessive research and online investigation,” the July 13 motion states.
Lively is represented by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. According to a filing by Esra Hudson, who chairs Manatt’s employment and labor practice, her standard billing rate is $1,430 an hour, but that was discounted for Lively, and ranged between $1,161 an hour to $1,287 an hour. Three other Manatt partners, Stephanie Roeser, Matthew Bruno and Sarah Moses, also worked on the litigation, as did Katelyn Climaco, a midlevel associate at the firm, the filing states. It seeks approximately $2.9 million in attorney fees, and $540,000 in costs.
For Willkie Farr, the motion seeks approximately $4.5 million in attorney fees.
There was a “tight discovery window,” and the defense repeatedly stalled with “dilatory tactics and overall litigation approach,” according to Lively’s June 29 filing. Additionally, it accuses the defense of repeatedly making public statements to taint the jury pool.
Also, Baldoni filed a defamation suit against Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, claiming they made false allegations of harassment to get control of the film. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York lawsuit also named the New York Times as a defendant; the action was dismissed in June 2025, Variety reported.
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