Blake Lively‘s lawyers have had enough of Justin Baldoni‘s PR campaign.
In a letter to a federal judge on Tuesday night, they argued that Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, violated the New York Rules of Professional Conduct by litigating their dispute in the press.
Freedman has been on a media blitz ever since Lively first accused her “It Ends With Us” co-star of sexual harassment and retaliation last month. Freedman, no stranger to celebrity disputes, has pushed back aggressively on Baldoni’s behalf, releasing an array of evidence that he says disproves the allegations.
The last straw for Lively’s team came on Tuesday, when Freedman released 10 minutes of raw footage from the slow dance scene in “It Ends With Us.” Lively had accused Baldoni of harassing her during filming of the scene, while Freedman argued the footage showed a normal professional interaction.
In response, Lively’s lawyers accused Freedman of selectively leaking discovery materials, and asked Judge Lewis J. Liman to set a hearing to “address the appropriate conduct of counsel.”
Sources in Baldoni’s camp argued that it would be “grossly unfair” to gag Freedman, given that he is simply defending his client from Lively’s defamatory “takedown campaign,” which was launched in the form of a lengthy article in the New York Times.
Baldoni’s team plans to set up a website to release more information to rebut Lively’s accusations.
Lively’s team is not asking — at least not yet — for a blanket “gag order” that would prohibit Freedman from talking to the press. In fact, the New York Rules of Professional Conduct expressly allow lawyers to make out-of-court statements to defend their clients from negative publicity.
But Lively’s team is looking to enforce the rule against making public statements that have a substantial likelihood of prejudicing the jury. Her lawyers also want to establish a protective order that would prohibit the release of discovery materials in the case.
“Federal litigation must be conducted in court and according to the relevant rules of professional conduct,” her lawyers wrote.
Lively’s lawyers sent two cease-and-desist letters to Freedman in December, arguing that his statements effectively further the campaign of retaliation against Lively for lodging her initial harassment complaint.
“Lawyers are not publicity agents,” they wrote. “We are required to follow a different set of professional standards than publicists and crisis managers.”
Those letters have had little apparent effect.
