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“It’s actually a bit remarkable to be able to break down the legalities in a case like this,” Chicago-Kent College of Law Visiting Associate Professor says. “[California Civil Rights Division] complaints aren’t available to the public by default, for very good reasons when you consider that victims of sexual harassment risk many forms of retaliation.”

In December 2024, actress Blake Lively filed a complaint in the California Civil Rights Division (CRD) that alleged sexual harassment and retaliation by her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, on the set of their most recent film, It Ends With Us.

She made the normally private complaint public by releasing it to the .

“Lively alleges a wide range of pretty unseemly conduct on the part of Baldoni, of a kind that’s unfortunately familiar in some Hollywood cases, in addition to a sweeping media campaign to discredit her,” says Ziaja, who is also the interim director of Chicago-Kent’s Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace. “What leaps off the page for me is her allegation of having been denied accommodations as a lactating mother. That’s an area that the federal government, as well as many states and localities, have given priority in recent years.”

Baldoni has responded with his own lawsuits against the Times and Lively for defamation and damage to his reputation.

“CRD will investigate [Lively’s] claims and may try to mediate a settlement. CRD then has the option of filing a lawsuit itself or else giving Lively permission to file her own suit,” he says. “She’s represented by the kinds of major law firms that suggest to me that she’s preparing to sue on her own, though.”

Although Ziaja thinks this case will likely end in a settlement, it could play a much larger role in public perception of safety in the workplace for women, particularly lactating mothers.

“Cases like this can signal where the culture has moved on bigger questions of equality and acceptable behavior that translate across work settings,” he says. “This is a test case, which is probably why it’s struck a nerve.”