Reply to Blake Lively- Jason Baldoni and NYT

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team. [/quote]

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers?  She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady. [/quote]

DP. I don’t think there’s any evidence garafalo worked with swift. It’s a very large firm with many offices. Nor is she the leak. It’s pretty much confirmed it was Taylor’s dad. Law firms like venable are far too buttoned down (and the lawyers and staff far too busy) to engage in gossip, especially gossip that breaches client confidentiality. And again, I doubt anyone even knew each other well. [/quote]

I was curious so looked into Garofalo's CV, because I was wondering if she'd been on the trial team for Taylor's sexual harassment case against David Mueller. But no. Garofalo was with Liner LLP (Freedman's current partner at Liner Freedman) for 15 years until it was acquired by DLA in 2017. She joined Venable in late 2018, in the LA office, but left in 2021 for Carlton Fields. She was at CF until 2024, where she was named managing partner of the LA office but then left a few months later to re-join Liner at Liner Freedman.

Taylor's trial against David Mueller was in 2017, so prior to Garofalo's time at Venable. Also no real evidence she worked on Baldridge's team during her short stint at Venable, or had anything to do with Swift's legal representation. Whereas she's spent the bulk of her career working with Liner, so it is unsurprising that she is at Liner Freedman now or that she'd be brought into this case as a trial specialist as the case is looking less and less likely to settle.

I think this story is fake news.[/quote]

I believe Garofalo and Baldridge passed each other at Venable like ships in the night, and never overlapped.

That said, Garifalo would obviously still know people at Venable doing entertainment law that could have passed her rumors about Swift, and it’s not crazy to think that’s part of why Freedman enticed her back to his firm. The stuff about firms being locked down is nonsense. This sort of thing would be unusual, but people talk, and it’s Freedman’s MO.  I’ve worked at a few different firms and I keep in touch with people.  And paralegals, assistants, and for that matter, associates have access to docs and sometimes have the best gossip.  They may not know precisely what happened but often they will have heard rumors.

The view above that “it’s settled” that Swift’s father was the source of the leak is not true afaik. I have not seen confirmation from any reliable source. [/quote]

Again, her connection to Freedman's firm is not Freedman, but Liner. She worked with Liner for 15 years before he sold his firm to DLA.

Garofalo would have to be pretty stupid to work any contacts at Venable for info about Swift, sorry. First of course you have the ethics issues. But even beyond that, these are all entertainment lawyers working for big stars (Garofalo has repped Minnie Driver and Alissa Milano). Celebs are extra sensitive to leaks and gossip among their professional staff and any suspicion that you have loose lips could be very damaging to an entertainment career. Even Freedman, who obviously likes to work his angles, likely goes to great lengths to never cross that line because it could hurt his ability to bring in new clients.

I agree it is not settled that Scott Swift was the source of the leak, in fact that story has always struck me as bizarre because of the way Freedman describes the informant in his letter/affidavit. I think it's more likely to be a PR person working in Swift's orbit, the best guess I've heard is a one of Travis's PR people who has connections to Baldoni's PR team from their previous PR firm. That makes much more sense to me because I buy that the PR people would all be pumping each other for info behind the scenes a lot more than lawyers at these buttoned up firms or Scott Swift being supremely messy.[/quote]

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