Blake Lively will receive $400,000 in legal fees from Justin Baldoni in their bitter lawsuit – after demanding an eye-watering $8 million following their bombshell settlement, the Daily Mail can reveal.
In a latest humiliation for the actress, a New York judge ruled Wednesday that the actress will get only 5 percent of the amount she sought to recover for defending herself against Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit.
The judge called the number of hours Lively charged for her lawyers “unreasonable” and criticized the “discrepancies” in the expenses she tried to claim.
The court’s ruling comes months after the same judge dismissed most of the claims in Lively’s sexual harassment case against her It Ends With Us co-star and they agreed to settle the case without any money having to change hands.
Judge Lewis Liman had previously dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively, but he did allow her to seek legal fees related solely to defending that action.
In an order obtained by the Daily Mail, Judge Lewis Liman ruled: “The clerk is respectfully directed to enter judgment for Lively in the amount of $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs.”
Blake Lively will receive $400,000 in legal fees from Justin Baldoni in their bitter lawsuit, according to court filings on Wednesday
Justin Baldoni had previously rejected Blake Lively’s claim for $8.3 million in legal fees, with his lawyers describing the claims as “deeply flawed.”
The total award is $407,451.75 – a fraction of the $8 million she originally demanded in June.
Lively had claimed that Baldoni owed her $7,495,526.87 in legal fees and $539,514.01 in fees she accrued over ten months fighting his countersuit before it was dismissed.
But Judge Liman appears to agree with Baldoni’s lawyers that some of the amounts Lively requested were “excessive” and “exorbitant,” as they claimed in legal documents.
In his 21-page ruling, Judge Liman said both sides “have waged a fierce battle against each other in court.”
Judge Liman said the hourly rate lawyers charged for Lively and Baldoni was “not unreasonable” as the case posed “substantial financial and reputational risks” to both parties.
But the “number of hours for which Lively is seeking reimbursement is unreasonable,” the judge ruled, noting that Lively did not actually submit the invoices to the court but instead submitted forms outlining the payments.
It Ends with Us earned $148 million at the domestic box office and $350 million worldwide, but the goodwill the film garnered was overshadowed by the stars’ allegations.
The actor and director’s life has been turned upside down by the case, which started with an argument on the set of the hit film about domestic violence, It Ends With Us. Above, Baldoni and wife Emily leave court after a ‘settlement conference’ in February
Judge Liman said Baldoni’s lawyers had “discovered a series of flaws in the case” [Lively] data that is illustrative of broader discrepancies and deficiencies in the fee schedule.”
The billing information for internal communications was “vaguely described” and did not identify the work performed, the ruling said.
Judge Liman also rejected Lively’s claim for reimbursement of costs for her PR team because “media relations were not essential to the defense of the defamation claim against Lively,” the ruling said.
In a statement released Wednesday following the order, Lively’s attorneys Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb said, “Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties lost their meritless $400 million retaliation case, which was ruled by two different courts to stifle public criticism and silence Blake Lively and others.”
“This first-ever award of fees and costs under this California law is historic and demonstrates that there are real consequences when retaliation lawsuits are filed.
“As we have said from day one, Blake Lively’s case was never about money, it was about responsibility.
Lively and Baldoni finally reached a settlement in the two-year legal battle in May – just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial. Above, on the set of It Ends With Us in 2024
‘Blake Lively’s lawsuit has exposed an industry of secretive online smear campaigns largely targeting women, and unsurprisingly involving the same players.
“She pulled back the curtain on other victims and set the precedent for others to come forward and denounce similar behavior. This result shows that the justice system is not as easily manipulated as social media, and still functions as a force for accountability.”
Baldoni’s lawyer Brian Freedman told the Daily Mail: ‘The ruling is an important victory for my clients and sends a clear message that no matter how powerful you are, the courtroom is not a place to abuse the law for your own personal gain.’
Lively first sued Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment on the set of the film and defamation.
Baldoni responded the following month with a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times, which first published her claims.
In October 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s case and in May of this year, after a judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, she agreed to settle her claim.
But the legal battle did not end there.
Weeks later, Lively filed court papers to recoup her legal fees from the lengthy lawsuit.
Last month, the court revealed how much it was seeking: $4,544,094 from Willkie Farr & Gallagher and $2,951,432 from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, two high-profile law firms.
However, the final bill would have been $300,000 higher due to costs associated with a subsequent hearing on June 1, bringing it to $8.3 million.
Court documents previously showed that Lively’s attorneys charged $155 for a six-minute phone call and $1,400 for an attorney to stay one night at a five-star hotel.
In legal documents, Wilkie describes itself as a “leading international law firm” with 1,300 lawyers in 16 offices across the country.
Lively leaves federal court after a court-ordered settlement conference in her civil lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni in February
Lively’s lead attorney, Michael Gottlieb, states he charges $2,795 per hour, but gave Lively a “discounted” rate of $2,187.
In total, he charged 224 hours or $457,000 and was one of the attorneys involved in the case.
Such fees are “reasonable,” Gottlieb claimed at the time, adding that Lively had paid her bills “in full.”
In another filing, Lively’s attorneys alleged that Baldoni’s legal team used “scorched earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources.”
As a result, she had to ‘regularly seek court assistance in order to govern’ [sic] in their abuse,” according to the documents signed by attorney Esra Hudson on behalf of both law firms.
In response to this Baldoni’s lawyer Ellyn Garofalo said this in court last month that it was “excessive” to claim $7,070.20 in billable hours.
She argued that Lively’s cost schedules were “extremely over-inclusive and deeply flawed” and included work by 82 people.
Lively’s attorneys spent “an excessive amount of time on internal consultations” and were “inefficient,” the filing said.
Baldoni’s legal team had argued that the fees awarded should be severely reduced based on multiple factors.
“Lively is not providing any account statements or other data in support of its $7.5 million claim, let alone awarding any fees in its defense of Wayfarer’s defamation claim,” Baldoni’s attorneys told the court at the time.
Other key factors Baldoni’s team cited in their filing included Lively’s inability to prove the total was based on reasonable hours and rates; a lack of evidence to support her claims; and ill-considered calculations about fees that may or may not be recoverable.
Baldoni’s attorneys said Lively also asked for “as much as $539,514.01 in costs and expenses without providing evidence to substantiate or attribute the costs to duties covered by section 47.1.”
“In short, Lively fails to meet her burden to present credible evidence demonstrating that the fees and costs she seeks to recover are reasonable and, therefore, her request for fees should be denied in its entirety,” Baldoni’s attorneys said in the filing.
