Justin Baldoni has added high-profile lawyer Alexandra Shapiro to his defense team in the ongoing dispute with Blake Lively over their 2024 film It Ends with Us. Shapiro, a New York-based attorney who previously clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has represented high-profile clients including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried. The addition was flagged in paperwork Baldoni filed on Sept. 15 for Wayfarer Studios, according to coverage from the Daily Mail.
The move comes as new court documents in Lively’s favor report a second accuser stepping forward amid the broader legal skirmish. In a sworn declaration filed by Lively’s attorney, an unidentified individual alleges they suffered “repeated, negative interactions” with Baldoni and his associates, including verbal abuse, and states Baldoni was not permitted on set for the majority of production. The sworn declaration, which references a prior collaboration with Baldoni on a separate Wayfarer project, is part of filings that TMZ described as likely to place a witness on Baldoni’s witness list. The documents, filed Sept. 4, 2025 under penalty of perjury, also mention Baldoni’s business partner, Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarowitz, and an outreach by Sarowitz’s assistant to arrange a meeting, though no topic was identified.
Lively’s side, meanwhile, filed a sweeping federal motion seeking attorney’s fees, treble damages, and punitive damages against Wayfarer Studios and its executives. The 30-page filing argues that Wayfarer’s defamation suit against Lively was baseless and a retaliatory attack after she reported harassment and retaliation. The motion cites California Civil Code Section 47.1 and asks the court to recognize Lively as the prevailing defendant and allow recovery of legal fees. A source cited by outlets described the accuser as likely to testify against Baldoni in Lively’s trial.
The motion also references threats allegedly made by Sarowitz, described in the filing as vowing to spend millions to ruin Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. The filing portrays those statements as part of a broader pattern of conduct that Lively’s team says violates civil protections against retaliatory litigation, designed to deter harassment claims.
The legal battles stretch back to December 2024, when Lively sued Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment on set, a claim Baldoni has denied. Baldoni and Wayfarer responded with a defamation suit against Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane, and Reynolds. Baldoni later filed a suit against The New York Times over its coverage of Lively’s allegations, prompting court maneuvers that culminated in a June ruling.
Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s defamation and extortion claim against The New York Times in June 2025, ruling that the Times’ reporting fell within privilege and noting the Wayfarer parties did not show the Times acted with the requisite intent to harm. The judge’s order left intact claims outside the privilege analysis and underscored the complexity of a case built on multiple, intersecting disputes spanning entertainment, media, and civil rights protections.
As the reconciled timeline shows, the parties have waged a multi-front legal war tied to It Ends with Us and the broader operations of Wayfarer Studios. Lively and her counsel have pursued a path they say seeks accountability for harassment and retaliation, while Baldoni’s defense has sought to challenge the scope and impact of those accusations in court. Representatives for Baldoni did not respond to requests for comment, and a Daily Mail inquiry seeking reaction to Shapiro’s addition and to the accuser declarations did not yield comment at the time of filing.
The case remains fluid as both sides prepare for further proceedings, with the new attorney hire and the redoubled claims from a second accuser marking a notable escalation in the dispute over the star-studded film project and the corporate machinery behind it. The entertainment and legal communities will be watching how the courts navigate a tangle of allegations, counterclaims, and high-profile personalities in a case that ties a public romance to questions about workplace conduct and accountability in Hollywood.