{"id":107680,"date":"2025-02-04T16:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T00:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/04\/benchslapped-federal-judge-does-not-take-kindly-to-litigation-via-press-release\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T16:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T00:23:11","slug":"benchslapped-federal-judge-does-not-take-kindly-to-litigation-via-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/04\/benchslapped-federal-judge-does-not-take-kindly-to-litigation-via-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Benchslapped! Federal Judge Does Not Take Kindly To Litigation Via Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even someone chronically online that tries to balance media consumption between terrifying governmental changes and celebrity content may not have followed all the minutiae<\/a> of the dueling lawsuits<\/a> between \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. But\u2026 it *is* Hollywood\u2019s hottest litigation with more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so even casual observers have probably developed deep opinions about the case(s).<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s kinda the problem. As S.D.N.Y Judge Lewis J. Liman<\/a> told lawyers in a hearing this week, \u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot in front of the court that gives, I think, the public plenty to feast upon.\u201d Lively\u2019s legal team, led by Willkie Farr partner Michael Gottlieb, wants Baldoni\u2019s attorney Bryan Freedman to shut the hell up, saying the \u201charassing and retaliatory media campaign\u201d against his client has continued with \u201calmost daily media statements or other releases to the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

As reported by<\/a> NBC News:<\/p>\n

\n

During the hearing, Gottlieb said the attacks from both sides\u2019 playing out in the media has created an \u201carms race\u201d with no guardrails.\u00a0Gottlieb compared the dynamic with his adversary, Freedman, to \u201ctwo 4-year-olds in a playground.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing \u2014 ostensibly to discuss a case management plan, legal issues and discovery \u2014 devolved into accusations of leaks, harassment and retaliation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But Baldoni\u2019s legal team was also ready with accusations of their own:<\/p>\n

\n

Attorneys for Baldoni, who co-starred, directed and adapted \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d went on offense recently, launching a website linking to his lawsuit and 168 pages of what he says are hundreds of personal emails, documents and texts between the two, as well as their publicists and crisis managers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This feud began as a battle for the hearts and minds of the public, so perhaps it isn\u2019t surprising that, though the case is currently being heard in federal court, another very real tussle is still going on in the court of public opinion. But Judge Liman is pretty annoyed about that \u2014 and he threatened to move the trial date up from the currently calendared March 2026 if the attorneys couldn\u2019t stop taking the case in front of the peanut gallery. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And you should *absolutely* take Liman at his word \u2014 he knows how to maintain order in the courtroom despite exceptionally trying circumstances. Remember he\u2019s the judge who sanctioned Rudy Giuliani<\/a> for his own discovery shenanigans. So he won\u2019t be cowered by the bright lights that this Hollywood legal squabble brings. (Also, his brother is Swingers<\/em> director Doug Liman so to paraphrase Shania Twain<\/a>, that don\u2019t impress him much.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Benchslapped! Federal Judge Does Not Take Kindly To Litigation Via Press Release<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even someone chronically online that tries to balance media consumption between terrifying governmental changes and celebrity content may not have followed all the minutiae<\/a> of the dueling lawsuits<\/a> between \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. But\u2026 it *is* Hollywood\u2019s hottest litigation with more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so even casual observers have probably developed deep opinions about the case(s).<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s kinda the problem. As S.D.N.Y Judge Lewis J. Liman<\/a> told lawyers in a hearing this week, \u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot in front of the court that gives, I think, the public plenty to feast upon.\u201d Lively\u2019s legal team, led by Willkie Farr partner Michael Gottlieb, wants Baldoni\u2019s attorney Bryan Freedman to shut the hell up, saying the \u201charassing and retaliatory media campaign\u201d against his client has continued with \u201calmost daily media statements or other releases to the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

As reported by<\/a> NBC News:<\/p>\n

\n

During the hearing, Gottlieb said the attacks from both sides\u2019 playing out in the media has created an \u201carms race\u201d with no guardrails.\u00a0Gottlieb compared the dynamic with his adversary, Freedman, to \u201ctwo 4-year-olds in a playground.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing \u2014 ostensibly to discuss a case management plan, legal issues and discovery \u2014 devolved into accusations of leaks, harassment and retaliation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But Baldoni\u2019s legal team was also ready with accusations of their own:<\/p>\n

\n

Attorneys for Baldoni, who co-starred, directed and adapted \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d went on offense recently, launching a website linking to his lawsuit and 168 pages of what he says are hundreds of personal emails, documents and texts between the two, as well as their publicists and crisis managers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This feud began as a battle for the hearts and minds of the public, so perhaps it isn\u2019t surprising that, though the case is currently being heard in federal court, another very real tussle is still going on in the court of public opinion. But Judge Liman is pretty annoyed about that \u2014 and he threatened to move the trial date up from the currently calendared March 2026 if the attorneys couldn\u2019t stop taking the case in front of the peanut gallery. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And you should *absolutely* take Liman at his word \u2014 he knows how to maintain order in the courtroom despite exceptionally trying circumstances. Remember he\u2019s the judge who sanctioned Rudy Giuliani<\/a> for his own discovery shenanigans. So he won\u2019t be cowered by the bright lights that this Hollywood legal squabble brings. (Also, his brother is Swingers<\/em> director Doug Liman so to paraphrase Shania Twain<\/a>, that don\u2019t impress him much.)<\/p>\n

\n

\"KathrynKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even someone chronically online that tries to balance media consumption between terrifying governmental changes and celebrity content may not have followed all the minutiae of the dueling lawsuits between \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. But\u2026 it *is* Hollywood\u2019s hottest litigation with more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-300x275-16dn0g.jpeg?fit=300%2C275&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}