Blake Lively demands $8million from Justin Baldoni for legal fees she coughed up during bitter spat - including eye-watering amount for a SIX-MINUTE phone call

is demanding more than $8million in legal fees for defending herself against ’s lawsuit.

Lawyers for the Gossip Girl star claim that they spent the whopping sum in just 10 months while battling Baldoni's $400million defamation lawsuit.

In court filings, Lively revealed the eye watering amounts her lawyers charged, including more than $155 for a six minute phone call and $1,400 for an attorney staying one night at a five star hotel.

She tried to blame Baldoni’s side using ‘scorched earth litigation tactics’ which forced her to do more legal work than usual.

The demand represents a last throw of the dice for her legal war with Baldoni, who co-starred and directed her on the movie It Ends With Us.

Lively

Baldoni

All of the parties in the lawsuits denied the allegations against them. 

In October 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s case and in May this year, after a judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, she agreed to settle the case.

Lively was not paid any money in the settlement but Judge Lewis Liman, who presided over the case at a New York court, did allow her to seek legal fees solely related to Baldoni’s failed case against her.

In court filings, Lively’s lawyers stated that the amount they were seeking was $7,495,526 in legal fees and $539,514 in expenses.

The fees break down between two law firms: $4,544,094 for Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher and $2,951,432 for Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

However, the final bill will be even higher because of costs related to the most recent hearing on June 1.

According to court filings, that will add another $300,000 to the total.

In legal papers Wilkie describes itself as a ‘premier international law firm’ with 1,300 lawyers in 16 offices around the country.

Lively’s lead lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, states that he charges $2,795 an hour but gave Lively a ‘discounted’ rate of $2,187.