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Amber Heard has hired new lawyers to fight the $10 million defamation verdict given to Johnny Depp. This could be a good move for the 'Aquaman' actress, say experts.
Heard, who is 36 years old, has hired David Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown of the national law firm Ballard Spahr. They are the same lawyers who helped the New York Times win a libel case against Sarah Palin when she was governor of Alaska.
They will help Heard as she tries to change the verdict that a jury in Fairfax, Virginia, gave against her after the shocking trial of the ex-couple. The verdict was mostly against her.
Elaine Bredehoft, a lawyer from Virginia who represented Heard in court, is leaving the team, according to a representative for the actress.
“A different court warrants different representation, particularly as so much new evidence is now coming to light,” the rep said.
Texas civil lawyer Katherine Lizardo — who followed the trial closely — said she expected the change in the legal team and noted it would benefit Heard.
“This is a good move for her because it would give her a different point of view legally from trial counsel,” Lizardo told The Post.
Appeal lawyers are a “different breed” of attorneys who are experts in the “nuanced and specialty” field of law, Lizardo explained.
“If Amber Heard did not hire an attorney that was familiar with the appellate system then she would lose,” she said.
Lizardo also noted that it takes a certain demeanor to argue an appellate case — which in Virginia only allows for each side to speak for 15 minutes before a three-judge panel.
“Elaine Bredehoft’s style at trial and her time management issues wouldn’t work for appeal,” Lizardo said. “We saw when Elaine would ramble on or argue unrelated matters and that would be very detrimental if she argued similarly in front of the court of appeal judges.”
New York civil lawyer William Newman told The Post that Axelrod and Brown’s maneuvers in Palin’s case against the Times signal the type of strategy the legal team will use in Heard’s appeal.
The lawyers had focused on trying to prove that statements made about the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee in a Times piece weren’t made with actual malice — which is a higher legal standard applied to cases involving public figures.
“By selecting a lawyer that famously made that argument in the Sarah Palin case — that tells me that [actual malice] is going to be something that they are going to likely focus on in this appeal,” Newman said.
Still, Newman said it’s smart that Heard is still hanging onto one of her Virginia lawyers from trial, Benjamin Rottenborn.
“I think it’s a good choice,” Newman said of hiring Axelrod and Brown. “Ballard Spahr is a very well regarded firm. She is in good hands.”
“It’s still very good to have local Virginia lawyers working on it too,” Newman added.
Halim Dhanidina, who used to be a judge on California's appeals court and is now a criminal defense lawyer, told The Post that hiring new lawyers for an appeal is common and has many benefits, such as getting the expertise of an appellate lawyer and a new set of eyes on the case.
"Is almost too close to the issues" to be a trial lawyer. Dhanidina said. "On the other hand, a specialist in appeals might be able to look at what happened in the lower court record and come up with a different point of view or a different way to win on appeal."
"At the appellate level, an attorney might want to second-guess some of the strategies or actions taken by the trial attorney," the former judge said. "But the attorney who handled the trial wouldn't be in a position to criticize or second-guess their own actions."
In June, a jury agreed with the 59-year-old "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor's claim that Heard lied about him in an opinion piece she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 about being a victim of domestic violence. The actor was awarded $10.35 million.
Even though she didn't name Depp by name in the essay, his side at trial said it was clear that it was about her claims that he abused her around the time of their 2016 divorce.
In Heard's counterclaims, she said that Depp smeared her name when his lawyer, Adam Waldman, called her claims a hoax. The jury agreed and gave her $2 million.
Bredehoft didn't answer Monday when asked for a comment.
