Blake Lively's Lawyer Michael Gottlieb Says Client Plans to Take the Case to Trial

TMZ

Blake Lively's lawyer says his client isn't backing down in her legal battle now that Justin Baldoni's lawsuit has been dismissed ... 'cause she's taking this one all the way to trial.

Transcript

00:00Your response to Brian Friedman saying this battle isn't over, it certainly to some felt

00:08like Blake had won, at least as far as Justin's claims against her. But Brian Friedman saying

00:16that's not the case. You know, my client feels vindicated. This decision this week validates

00:21what she has been saying since the day these retaliatory lawsuits were filed against her,

00:27that we've said from the start these were meritless sham claims that were designed to

00:32distract from Ms. Lively's claims of sexual harassment and retaliation that she faced.

00:37And those claims, of course, were staying in the case. But we've said since the day these claims

00:43were filed back in January by the Wayfair parties that they were designed to distract from the

00:49retaliation campaign that they launched and the overwhelming evidence of that that occurs in

00:55their own words. They said they would bury Ms. Lively with the social manipulation campaign

01:01that they planned to be untraceable. But it turns out that it wasn't. And I think it's important to

01:08recognize what it means to lose your case at the motion to dismiss stage. I mean, when Justin

01:14Baldoni and the Wayfair parties filed this lawsuit, their lawyer went all over in the press saying that

01:18it was based on undeniable facts and documentary evidence that crushed Ms. Lively's false allegations.

01:26And the court essentially says, I'm going to accept everything you've said in your hundreds of pages

01:31of pleadings as true. But even accepting that all of that is true for the purposes of resolving this

01:37motion, nothing you have said constitutes a legally viable claim. It's all meritless. Despite all the

01:44bluster, despite all the hundreds of pages of filings, all of the claims, all of these so-called

01:49receipts add up to nothing but noise. It has all been dismissed from the case.

01:54So Brian Friedman told us yesterday that he hopes that you all go forward with your cases against

02:01Justin because he wants the opportunity to depose Blake in June. Is all that still moving forward?

02:07And do we expect a deposition in June? We are happy to oblige him with going forward with our case.

02:13The notion that we wouldn't go forward with this case, it is preposterous as much of what

02:19the Wayfair party's lawyer said the other day. Of course, Ms. Lively is going to go forward with

02:25her claims. One of the things she said when this decision came out is that she is more determined than

02:30ever to take this case to trial to prove her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation,

02:36not just for herself, but for all of the women out there who may suffer from sexual harassment in

02:44the workplace, who may not have the resources or may not have the wherewithal to be able to defend

02:50themselves and may be able to speak up for themselves. It's really important to remember what

02:55the Wayfair parties have tried to do in this case. They haven't just attacked Blake Lively and Ryan

03:00Reynolds. They've attacked the laws that are designed to protect victims of sexual abuse, sexual

03:06assault, sexual harassment. They've attempted to strike down as unconstitutional a landmark law in

03:15California that is designed to protect victims of sexual harassment who speak out. They, Justin Baldoni and

03:20Wayfair parties have asked a court to strike that law down as unconstitutional. Blake Lively is not

03:26going to allow that to happen. She's going to stand up for that law. She's going to stand up for

03:31victims of sexual harassment who choose to speak up. And she's going to take this case to trial and

03:38obtain accountability and justice for what has happened to her. Will Blake sit for that deposition?

03:43Of course she's going to sit for a deposition. She's a plaintiff in the case. So she's going to be

03:47deposed. Justin Baldoni is going to be deposed. Dave Sarwitz is going to be deposed. Melissa Nathan

03:51is going to be deposed. Those depositions will take place between now and when Discovery closes

03:57in August. And we're itching to get into them. The movie was called It Ends With Us. How does this end?

04:03It ends in trial. It ends with a trial in open court on the record with live testimony under oath. And we

04:11are confident that when that is done, we will prevail on the claims that Ms. Lively has raised.

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