The Praeses Elit Award from DU Law Society (Lawsoc) was awarded today to Camille Vasquez, a prominent Californian lawyer and a key player in the 2022 Depp v. Heard case, where actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard sued each other for defamation. Vasquez served as part of Depp’s legal team and won the case for the actor in a highly-publicised trial.
Vasquez, who had never been to Ireland previously, expressed that she was “extremely grateful and honoured to be [at the ceremony]”.
The ceremony also included a sit-down interview between Vasquez and Lawsoc Auditor Zoya Kherani, who began by asking the lawyer about how she decided to pursue law.
Vasquez described her upbringing in an immigrant household in Southern California, where she joked about being given the career options of either law or medicine by her parents. Further, she cited watching the OJ Simpson trial on television as an early inspiration: especially in regards to Robert Shapiro, who was a member of Simpson’s defense team, nicknamed the “Dream Team”. Vasquez described Shapiro as a friend, despite the fact that she had “worked against him” many times in her professional career.
Vasquez went on to discuss obstacles she faced as a woman of colour breaking into the field of law, a field where men still outnumber women by a sizable margin in the United States. Vasquez stated that it was “embarrassing” that women of colour still “struggle to break through,” in law.
In regards to her role and tactics with the Depp v. Heard case, Vasquez described her “earned luck” when she received the opportunity to work with Depp. “When the opportunity arose, I earned the ability to rise to the challenge”, said Vasquez, on her confidence at taking on the now-famous case, a fact that she further credited to her upbringing in an immigrant household. Vasquez also said that her team made a point to “reserve a lot of time for rebuttals”, as certain details that arose from Heard’s defense could not be known ahead of time. Overall, Vasquez believes that she was “much more prepared than the other side…that’s the way it looked”.
“We knew the case in a way it seemed the other side didn’t”, said Vasquez.
Vasquez also credited witness testimony like that from British model Kate Moss, who testified against Heard’s claim that Depp pushed Moss down a flight of stairs. Moss testified, according to Vasquez, because she “felt so strongly about this rumour”, in regards to Heard’s allegations.
The conversation then segued into the social ramifications of the case, namely about domestic violence and “cancel culture”.
“We might’ve thought to ourselves…that there was some truth to it”, said Vasquez. “If we were honest with ourselves we might admit that…the reason [the trial] captured people’s attention is because as a society we realised that we judge too quickly”.
Vasquez cited Depp’s “bad boy” personality and his previous struggles with substance abuse as reasons why public opinion was not initially in Depp’s favour.
“You can be found guilty just by an allegation, that’s a scary thought…It lives in this internet world for the rest of time…it becomes viral in seconds…Do we really believe in cancel culture when we see what an allegation can do?”
When asked if matters can ever be separated from the courtroom and court of public opinion, Vasquez said “no” and that she believes “it does more good than harm”.
“I just don’t know if there is a world where you can separate the court of public opinion from the court of law”, she said.
Even so, Vasquez emphasised that despite her winning of Depp’s case, including a settlement of 1 million US dollars, that the trial “was not about money” and instead about clearing Depp’s name.
“[Depp] lived his life behind windows, car windows, plane windows, hotel windows. Until you lose some of your anonymity, you don’t realise how precious it is.”
Describing the case overall, Vasquez said that Amber Heard did “a huge disservice to real victims”, and that she has “seen all the evidence” and “believe[s] we were on the right side of it”.
When asked by Kherani to provide advice to aspiring lawyers, Vasquez said the following:
“You can do anything you set your mind to…don’t limit yourself by your last name, where you went to school, or whether or not you’re the first person to pursue higher education…life is more than a career”.
The event comes after The Praeses Elit award was also presented to former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, who was given the award due to her work in advocating for children, domestic violence survivors, and for marriage equality in Ireland.
