Hollywood long ago declared Johnny Depp and Amber Heard stars. But in the court of public opinionthere’s a new celebrity in the making: Camille Vasquez.
Don’t know the name? You must be on a social media cleanse.
Vasquez, 37, is just one out of a team of nine attorneys deployed by Depp in his $100 million libel suit against ex-wife Heard. But you’d be forgiven for confusing her with her for one of the stars on the scene. When she leaves the courthouse, she’s often greeted by fans (hers and Depp’s) yelling, “We love you, Camille!” and clips of her cross-examination of Heard have gone viral.
Over the course of the six-week-and-counting trial, Vasquez has generated admiration, speculation and adulation online. She’s being cited as an inspiration for Latinas with legal aspirations.
“Had to meet Camille Vasquez and tell her what an inspiration she is to so many Latinas!” Gushed Carol Dagny (@caritodagny) on TikTok. To which Andrea (@b.andrea111) replied: “As a Latina entering my final year of law school, no one has gotten me as excited to join the field as she has!”
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That enthusiasm could well help bolster law school roll calls, says Lucero Chavez Basilio, president of the Latina Lawyers Bar Association, a Los Angeles-based organization that has membership nationwide. Basilio says Latinas make up only 2% of the legal profession: Despite “being dressed in a suit,” she says she’s been confused for a litigant or interpreter in court.
“It’s important for us to be seen as professional and competent, so we celebrate that Ms. Vasquez can be a zealous lawyer and that that’s enough,” Basilio says. “It’s wonderful she can be a model or at least an inspiration for other attorneys.”
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There is also much praise online for Vasquez’s killer courtroom style.
“The world waited for this roasting from Camille,” wrote Mina (@ayesha13465) in a tik tok post. “Camille Vasquez is the unrivaled star of the Depp trial. Her measured tone of her, incisive questions, total command of the facts and clear belief in her client of her are laudable, ” tweeted attorney Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw).
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So who is Vasquez?
Her page on the website of her law firm, Southern California-based Brown Rudnick, simply describes her as an associate in the litigation and arbitration practice group. Her specialties include plaintiff-side defamation suits, contract disputes, business-related torts and employment-related claims.
“Camille is adept at formulating offensive and defensive litigation strategies for private clients,” her bio states. “She also has extensive experience handling parallel reputation management and crisis communications issues arising from these engagements.”
Online reports indicate Vasquez was born in San Francisco to Cuban and Colombian parents, Leonel and Maria Vasquez. She has a sister who is a pediatrician in the Los Angeles area.
Amber Heard had yet to take the stand.But on social media, Johnny Depp had already won.
according to her LinkedIn page, Vasquez graduated in 2006 from the University of Southern California with a major in communication and political science. She got her law degree in 2010 from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, and joined Brown Rudnick in 2018.
Aspects of Vasquez’s in-court demeanor during the Depp trial have generated another kind of online chatter.
Countless TikTok videos focus on hugs and notes passed between Depp and his attorney. Set to Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” a video posted by the fan account @CamilleVasquez highlights such interactions. Asked by a TMZ reporter outside the court if she was dating Depp, Vasquez just laughed and kept on walking.
Basilio brushes off such speculation as sexist. “We get pigeonholed as female attorneys, are we resting a hand on a shoulder, are we speaking closely in an ear?” she says. “I truly wonder if that same attention would be given to a male attorney.”
The ongoing trial that has put Vasquez in the limelight has riveted millions for his insights into the often-toxic relationship between Depp and Heard.
These include Depp’s accusation that Heard sliced off his finger during a drunken fight, a charge denied by Heard, who countered that Depp assaulted her sexually with a liquor bottle.
Depp is suing because he claims an op-ed piece Heard wrote in The Washington Post, in which she discussed being a victim of domestic abuse without naming Depp, you have irreparably damaged his career. Heard’s attorneys have argued that Depp’s drinking, drugging and lack of reliability are what have tarnished his reputation in Hollywood.
Vasquez’s own star may rise higher soon. As the trial nears its conclusion likely later this week, legal observers will be watching with interest to see if she is called upon to deliver Team Depp’s closing statements rather than a veteran male colleague.
Basilio says that it would make tactical sense.
“In any legal case, your firm has to carefully assess who your client is and who you have representing them,” she says. “The optics here are high profile. So it makes sense, given how well Ms. Vasquez is doing, to keep her up there. After all, if she can persuade jury, that’s all that matters in the end.”
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism