The actor-director has hired Alexandra Shapiro, a former Supreme Court clerk who represents Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried, as tensions with Lively rise

Justin Baldoni has added a new attorney to his legal team as his intensifying civil dispute with Blake Lively barrels toward trial.

Alexandra Shapiro — a prominent New York-based criminal defense attorney whose clients include Sean “Diddy” Combs and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried — filed a notice of appearance last week, formally stating that she is joining Baldoni’s legal team, according to court records reviewed by PEOPLE.

A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Shapiro was one of the first clerks to serve under Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. She later co-founded a boutique litigation firm known for handling complex, high-profile cases across the country.

Her addition comes as tensions between Lively, 38, and Baldoni, 41, continue to escalate.

In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni and his colleagues at Wayfarer Studios of sexual harassment and retaliation during the production of It Ends With Us. Baldoni has denied the allegations. His $400 million countersuit for defamation and extortion was dismissed in June.

The conflict escalated further last week when U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman rejected a request from Baldoni’s legal team to extend the discovery deadline in order to depose Taylor Swift. Baldoni’s attorneys had sought an extension through the end of October to question Swift, whose name had appeared in earlier filings.

Meanwhile, as legal sparring intensifies, Lively’s attorneys have filed motions seeking sanctions against Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, for violating the court’s protective order.

In May 2025, they accused him of making “biased and inflammatory pretrial indictments” against Lively’s character, credibility, and reputation, and condemned his “ghoulish taunt” after he gave an exclusive interview to PEOPLE, saying he wanted to depose the actress at Madison Square Garden, sell tickets, and livestream the appearance.

Lively’s lawyers filed sanctions for the second time in August against Freedman, after details of Lively’s deposition leaked in the media.

The next court hearing is scheduled for October 21, with trial scheduled for March 2026.

Blake Lively Shares New Gossip Girl Photos for Show’s 18th Anniversary

And in the more than a decade since the show’s 2012 end after six seasons, there have been plenty of onscreen cast reunions.

In June, Blake reunited with Zuzanna Szadkowski—who played Blair’s housekeeper Dorota Kishlovsky—to advertise her summer flavors of her canned beverage line Betty Booze.

Plus, come October 23, Leighton will share the small screen with the voice of Gossip Girl herself Kristen Bell—as well as IRL husband Adam Brody—in season two of Nobody Wants This.

“This cast is really close, we have a very active text chain, sometimes too active, a lot of people making jokes,” Kristen told Extra in February about Leighton joining the Nobody Wants This cast. “I mean folding Leighton into it just seems natural and wonderful.”

To learn some secrets about Gossip Girl, keep reading.

Chuck and Blair’s Relationship Was Inspired by Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick’s Onscreen Chemistry

Ed Westwick Knows He Had “Great Chemistry” With Leighton Meester

Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford Were Roomies

This Mega Star Almost Played Serena

Penn Badgley Buzzed Off Most of His Hair on the First Day of Filming

Lily Collins Auditioned for This Role

These Celebs Were in the Running to Play Young Lily Van der Woodsen

Chuck Bass Was Only Supposed to Be in a Few Episodes

Jessica Szohr Was Cast After Being Scouted at a Pool Party

Ed Westwick Almost Lost His Role of Chuck Due to Visa Issues

Christina Ricci and Selma Blair Were Considered to Voice Gossip Girl

Blake Lively Shares Never-Before-Seen ‘Gossip Girl’ Photos With Leighton Meester and Michelle Trachtenberg

“This show was my college.”

Blake Lively is taking a walk down memory lane in honor of Gossip Girl‘s 18th birthday. The A Simple Favor actress celebrated the milestone anniversary with a photo dump on Instagram, where she shared some never-before-seen images of the cast and crew.

“This show was my college,” Lively wrote in her caption. “It was my education, my social life, my hardwork, my late nights and early mornings, my teacher. New York City and Silvercup Studios (& sometimes Paris ✨) was my campus for SIX years.”

The mom of four concluded, “So many memories. What. A. Decade. 💖 What a University.” Her throwback images included snapshots of Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, and the late Michelle Trachtenberg.

Gossip Girl aired from 2007 to 2012 and catapulted many of its actors to stardom, including Lively, who had already burst onto the scene two years prior with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The actress played Serena van der Woodsen in the hit series, which chronicled the lives of wealthy Upper East Side high schoolers.

Gossip Girl was rebooted in 2021 on HBO Max and lasted a total of two seasons. Kristen Bell reprised her role as narrator, but none of the original cast members returned.

“We made a decision early on—and I was nervous about this decision, but definitely came to believe it was right—that the audience would never accept these characters if they were in the shadow of the original characters,” creator Joshua Safran told The Daily Beast.

The original show resurfaced for a brief moment earlier this year in the wake of Trachtenberg’s death. Tributes poured in from her former co-stars, including Lively, who posted a heartfelt tribute to her late friend on Instagram.

“This was the first day I met Michelle,” she wrote in part, alongside a photo of the two on set. “She was electricity. You knew when she entered a room because the vibration changed.”