Jed Wallace Won't Go Quietly: PR Crisis Manager Appeals Dismissal of Blake Lively Lawsuit

The legal dust from the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni fallout continues to settle in the courts—and now there’s another voice demanding a do-over. Jed Wallace, the PR strategist and head of Street Relations Inc., is refusing to let a Texas judge’s dismissal of his defamation suit against Blake Lively be the final word. Instead, he’s appealing the decision, arguing the court got its jurisdiction call wrong.

Here’s the backstory: Blake Lively filed a civil rights complaint back in 2024 naming Jed Wallace and his firm for allegedly smearing her reputation during the aftermath of the It Ends With Us production drama. Wallace countered with his own defamation suit in Texas in early 2025, but a judge tossed it last year, ruling the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. That should’ve been the end of it. But Wallace’s latest court filing—submitted Friday—signals he’s not ready to accept defeat.

His argument hinges on a jurisdictional technicality, but one with some teeth: he claims Blake took meaningful Texas-targeted actions that should establish personal jurisdiction. In his appeal, Wallace points out that Blake’s accusations centered on his conduct in Texas, that she invoked a Texas court to investigate her claims, hired Texas-based lawyers, and paid filing fees to the Texas court system. By that logic, if you’re going to sue someone in a state’s court, that same state should have the power to hear the countersuit.

Whether the appeals court buys that reasoning remains to be seen. Legal experts have long noted the complexity of jurisdiction in cases involving high-profile figures operating across multiple states and social media platforms. The fact that both parties have already locked horns over multiple suits—Blake’s original complaint, Wallace’s defamation claim, and now this appeal—suggests this particular legal battle isn’t settling anytime soon. If the appeal succeeds, Wallace gets another chance to make his case in a Texas courtroom. If it fails, it could signal the end of the road for his suit against Blake.

What makes this noteworthy isn’t just the technical legal maneuvering—it’s the window it opens into how reputational disputes between high-profile figures play out in court. Wallace is betting that the mechanics of jurisdiction can work in his favor, even after a judge already decided once that they couldn’t. The outcome could reshape how future cases involving PR professionals and entertainment industry figures navigate the court system.