LOS GATOS, Calif., July 28 (San Francisco News Online) — In San Francisco, a lawsuit from former Netflix executive Kevin Baillie says a work-retreat disclosure about medically supervised ketamine treatment led to his firing and the loss of a role he says paid about $1.1 million a year.
The complaint, filed by Baillie against Netflix, says the dispute grew out of a January 2026 “vulnerability-trust exercise” at Sendero Ranch, a Netflix-owned property in Northern California. Baillie says he told colleagues there that he had received ketamine treatment under medical supervision in 2022 for clinical depression after his mother died.
Why does the disclosure matter?
Baillie says the disclosure was meant to be part of an exercise designed to build trust and openness. Instead, he claims Netflix treated the statement as a problem and later investigated him. In the complaint, he says a Netflix investigator questioned him on March 18, 2026, “in a manner suggesting suspicion of recreational drug use.”
The lawsuit also says a company attorney later told him that “the ketamine therapy issue has factored into the termination.” Baillie says he was fired in April 2026.
What money is at stake?
Baillie says he was the vice president and head of creative at Netflix’s Eyeline Studios, the company’s visual effects division. He says his compensation was about $1.1 million a year. The complaint says he was also denied severance pay worth up to a year’s salary.
That makes the case a financial dispute as well as an employment one. Baillie is asking for lost wages, emotional distress damages, compensatory damages and punitive damages, and he wants a jury trial.
What is ketamine therapy?
Ketamine is a drug that can be used in clinical settings for certain mental health conditions, including treatment-resistant depression. In the complaint, Baillie says his treatment was medically supervised at a Santa Barbara clinic in October and November 2022.
The lawsuit does not say the treatment was illegal. Instead, Baillie’s claim is that Netflix used the disclosure itself against him.
What else does the complaint say?
The filing also includes a separate allegation about the retreat. It says Baillie drank a Guinness while standing on his head after colleagues asked him to demonstrate the trick.
The complaint, as described in the reporting, does not identify the specific court or detail Netflix’s full response. It also does not name the investigator or attorney referenced in the filing.
For workers and employers, the case highlights how offhand comments at team retreats can turn into legal fights over privacy, medical disclosure, compensation and termination.
