Brown Rudnick promotes Camille Vasquez to partner

Brown Rudnick promotes Camille Vasquez to partner

Camille Vasquez is significantly considered to receive the $15 million verdict, in favour of Depp's case

Camille Vasquez has been promoted to partner at Brown Rudnick following her success in winning a $15m jury verdict in Johnny Depp's defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard.

Even though the firm usually waits till the end of the fiscal year before promoting lawyers to partnership, Vasquez's performance in the trial earned him the distinction just a week after the verdict was delivered on 1 June.

From Manatt Phelps & Phillips, Vasquez joined the firm's Irvine, California, office in 2018 as an associate. She specializes in plaintiff-side defamation suits, as well as contract disputes, business liability, and employment disputes.

William Baldiga, chairman and CEO of Brown Rudnick, said: "Camille's performance during the Johnny Depp trial proved she was prepared to take this next step. Our company is extremely proud of her and we look forward to what she will achieve as our latest partner."

As part of the sports and entertainment litigation team representing Depp, Ben Chew led and worked with Wayne Dennison and Rebecca MacDowell Lecaroz. In addition to being one of six associates working on the case, Vasquez played an important role in Heard's cross-examination.

Heard was representing himself through a legal team which included Elaine Charlson Bredenhoft from the Washington DC-based litigation firm Charleson Bredenhoft Cohen Brown & Nadelhaft and civil litigation attorney Benjamin Rotterborn from Woods Rogers.

During the trial, which began on 11 April, the focus was on an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 regarding domestic violence in which Depp was not named. Following the publication of the op-ed, Depp sued Heard for $50m on the basis of alleged defamatory statements.

The jury found in favor of Depp and awarded him $15m, but ruled that Depp was responsible for defamatory statements made about Heard by his former attorney Adam Waldman and awarded her $2m in damages.

Depp's legal team said it was "honoured" to represent Depp in this important case following the conclusion of the trial.

The statement reads, "We join Mr. Depp's many fans and supporters in congratulating the jury for confirming our arguments and following the evidence to vindicate Mr. Depp."