Justin Baldoni Just Hired Diddy’s Lawyer…

Thought the actor and director’s defense was aggressive enough already? He just added an attorney who previously represented Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  September 19, 2025 | 9:32am
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Justin Baldoni Just Hired Diddy’s Lawyer…

This week, Justin Baldoni made a startling addition to his defense team: Alexandra Shapiro, otherwise known as the woman currently representing Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was found guilty of prostitution charges yet acquitted for sex trafficking in July. Score!

In a court document obtained by Page Six, Baldoni’s camp informs the New York federal court that “Alexandra A.E. Shapiro of Shapiro Arato Bach LLP hereby appears as counsel for” Baldoni—as well as his co-defendants, publicists Melissa Nathan, Jennifer Abel, and Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath. Shapiro is widely regarded as a heavyweight in her field, representing Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried. She’s also a former clerk of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The addition comes just weeks after People reported that a second accuser will likely testify against the actor and director in the forthcoming It Ends With Us trial. Come March 9, 2026, an unknown person might take the stand with claims in accordance with Blake Lively’s accusations that Baldoni created a hostile work environment on the set of the 2024 romantic drama.

In August, Lively’s team also filed a motion for sanctions against Baldoni’s other attorney, Bryan J. Freedman. In it, the lawyers claim that Freedman and his clients have made a habit of leaking “biased and inflammatory pre-trial indictments of Ms. Lively’s character, credibility, and reputation” and “publicly slandering” the actress. The most recent example of such was, of course, their depositions, which took place in August. In the days that followed, details of the deposition appeared in tabloids like the Daily Mail and TMZ—most notably that Baldoni was present and that Lively attended the deposition with a group of people that included her older sister, Robyn Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds, and eight attorneys.

Freedman, you might know, has been accused of litigating the case in the press more than once already. An example: He argued Baldoni’s side on The Megyn Kelly Show in January. Just how much more aggressive can Baldoni’s defense team get? Unfortunately, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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