Blake Lively seeks to prevent Justin Baldoni from trying box in the press

Blake Lively’s lawyers are tired of the Justin Baldoni public relations campaign.

In a letter to a federal judge on Tuesday evening, they argued that Baldoni lawyer, Bryan Freedman, had violated the New York professional rules of conduct by pleading their dispute in the press.

Freedman has been on a media blitz since Lively accused her co-star “IT ends with us” sexual harassment and reprisals last month. Freedman, no stranger to celebrity disputes, has aggressively rejected the name of Baldoni, publishing a range of evidence that says that they refute allegations.

The last straw of the Lively team came on Tuesday when Freedman released 10 minutes of raw sequences from the slow dance scene in “IT ends with us”. Lively accused Baldoni of having harassed him during the shooting of the scene, while Freedman argued that the images showed normal professional interaction.

In response, Lively lawyers accused Freedman of selectively dividing the discovery equipment and asked judge Lewis J. Liman to define an audience to “treat the appropriate conduct of the lawyer”.

Sources in the Baldoni camp have argued that it would be “very unfair” to gap Freedman, since he simply defends his client from the defamatory “withdrawal campaign” of Lively, which was launched in the form of ‘A long article from the New York Times.

The Baldoni team plans to create a website to publish more information to refute the accusations of Lively.

The Lively team does not ask – at least not yet – for a “Gag Order” coverage which would prohibit Freedman from talking to the press. In fact, New York’s professional driving rules expressly allow lawyers to make outside statements to defend their customers against negative advertising.

But the Lively team seeks to enforce the rule against public declarations which have a substantial probability of prejudging the jury. His lawyers also want to establish a protection order which prohibits the release of discovery documents in the case.

“Federal disputes must be carried out in court And according to the relevant rules of professional conduct, ”wrote his lawyers.

Lively lawyers sent two letters to stop and desist to Freedman in December, arguing that his declarations effectively pursue the reprisal campaign against Lively for having filed his initial complaint on harassment.

“Lawyers are not advertising agents,” they wrote. “We are required to follow a different set of professional standards than publicists and crisis managers.”

These letters had little apparent effect.

Update, 7:20 p.m. January 23: Baldoni lawyer Kevin Fritz, replied in a legal file Thursday evening, saying that Lively had initiated the “media frenzy for food” and that his attempt to prevent Baldoni from defending himself is a “tactical of intimidation”.

“The living desire of the parties to force the Wayfarer parties to defend themselves in private against the allegations made publicly is not an appropriate base for an order of gag,” wrote Fritz. “It’s a tactical game, and it’s scandalous. If, as the letter of the animated parties suggests, such a protection order is officially requested, it must be refused. »»