Justin Baldoni Hits Back at Blake Lively’s ‘Excessive’ Request for $8M in Legal Fees

Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios are pushing back on Blake Lively’s request for $8 million in legal fees.

Baldoni and Lively reached a settlement in their “It Ends with Us” legal battle in May, but a judge ordered Baldoni and Wayfarer to pay Lively’s legal fees relating to Baldoni’s failed $400-million countersuit against Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds.

Last month, Lively’s team filed a motion asking for “attorneys’ fees of $7,495,526.87 and costs in the amount of $539,514.01.”

In docs obtained by “Extra” on July 14, Baldoni and Wayfarer claim the fees are “excessive.”

The papers state, “Lively claims that she is entitled to a stunning $7,495,526 in attorney’s fees for 7,070.20 hours billed by no fewer than 82 timekeepers, to obtain the dismissal of a single defamation claim at the pleading stage.”

Referencing Baldoni’s dismissed defamation case against The New York Times, the filing states that “in contrast” the newspaper “is seeking $181,000 in a fee request filed in state court for its motion to dismiss precisely the same defamation claim.”

The docs allege, “Of course, Lively could not possibly have spent over 7,000 hours preparing the portion of the motion to dismiss directed to Wayfarer’s defamation claim.”

Baldoni and Wayfarer state that Lively included legal fees related to non-defamation claims in the “It Ends with Us” legal battle, insisting they were “inextricably intertwined.” Baldoni and Wayfarer insist she is “not entitled” to fees related to other claims.

They also accuse Lively of not providing “billing statements or other records to support her $7.5 million demand,” and call out the rates Blake paid, saying “a client’s agreement to pay an expensive rate does not mean that the rate is reasonable and may be imposed on an opposing party.”

Hitting back at the other legal costs, the docs state, “Lively seeks a whopping $539,514.01 in costs and expenses without providing evidence to substantiate the costs or attribute them to tasks.”

Baldoni and Wayfarer close the filing, stating, “Lively fails to meet her burden to present credible evidence showing that the fees and costs she seeks to recover are reasonable and, accordingly, her fee motion should be denied in its entirety. At minimum, the Court should substantially reduce the request, using as a benchmark the $181,622.70 the Times sought after securing dismissal of Count II on its separate motion to dismiss — the same outcome Lively achieved.”

The “It Ends with Us” battle started in December 2024, when Lively filed a legal complaint with the California Civil Rights Department claiming Baldoni sexually harassed her on set.

Two months later, she also accused him of defamation. Baldoni denied all of Lively’s allegations.

He then filed a $400-million countersuit against Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds that was officially dismissed.

Justin also filed a $250-million lawsuit against The New York Times, but that was dismissed as well.

After they settled in May, the judge did not award Blake any punitive damages, but did order Justin to pay her legal fees related to his countersuit.

Justin and his wife Emily recently spoke out about their journey over the past two years.

Baldoni did not name Blake, but shared, in part, “We are healing. If you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear. It looks different every day. We have had to rethink for ourselves what is real, and what matters. It’s this. It’s our family, it’s our friends, it’s our community, who have been there for us, it’s our faith.”

Justin said to Emily, “You had a prayer at the beginning, which was that you prayed that people would have discernment and so many of you had discernment… and you have given your time to fight for us and thank you does not feel like enough.”