Amber Heard has hired new lawyers as she appeals the $10 million judgment awarded to Johnny Depp in her libel battle – a move experts said would be beneficial for the ‘Aquaman’ actress could.
Heard, 36, has brought in David Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown of national law firm Ballard Spahr, who successfully represented The New York Times against former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit.
They will help Heard as she fights to overturn the largely unfavorable verdict reached against her by a jury following the ex-couple’s bombing trial in Fairfax, Virginia.
Virginia attorney Elaine Bredehoft, who represented Heard in court, will leave the team, according to a rep for the actress.
Amber Heard has hired new lawyers as she appeals the $10 million judgment awarded to Johnny Depp in her libel battle. Rod Lamkey/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images
“A different court warrants a different representation, especially now that so much new evidence is coming to light,” the spokesman said.
Texas civil attorney Katherine Lizardo — who followed the trial closely — said she expected the change in the legal team and noted Heard would benefit from it.
“This is a good move for her because legally it would give her a different perspective than the trial attorney,” Lizardo told The Post.
Appellate attorneys are a “different breed” of attorneys who are experts in the “nuanced and specialized” area of law, Lizardo explained.
The Virginia jury found that Heard had defamed Depp in her essay on domestic violence charges. Cliff Owen/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images
“If Amber Heard didn’t hire an attorney who was familiar with the appeals system, she would lose,” she said.
Lizardo also noted that arguing on appeal requires a certain behavior – which in Virginia only allows each side to speak for 15 minutes before a panel of three judges.
“Elaine Bredehoft’s style in court and her time management issues would not convince,” Lizardo said. “We have seen when Elaine has rambled or argued about unrelated matters, and it would be very damaging if she had argued similarly before the appeals court judges.”
New York civil attorney 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 attorneys had focused on proving that statements about the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee in a Times article were not made with actual malice — which is a higher legal standard applied to public figure cases.
“By selecting an attorney who is known to have made that argument in the Sarah Palin case — that tells me that [actual malice] will be something they will likely focus on in this appeal,” Newman said.
Still, Newman said it was smart that Heard was still holding on to one of her Virginia attorneys from the trial, Benjamin Rottenborn.
“I think it’s a good choice,” Newman said of hiring Axelrod and Brown. “Ballard Spahr is a very respected law firm. She is in good hands.”
“It’s still very good that Virginia attorneys are working on this as well,” Newman added.
Heard brought on board David Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown from the national law firm Ballard Spahr. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Former California Circuit Court of Appeals Judge and current criminal defense attorney Halim Dhanidina told The Post that hiring new attorneys for an appeal is routine and has many benefits, including gaining an appellate attorney’s expertise and a fresh perspective on the case.
A litigator “is almost too close to the issues.” said Dhanidina. “Whereas an appellate specialist might be able to look at what happened in the lower court records and perhaps have a different perspective or strategy for how they might be successful on appeal.”
“What an appellate level attorney might want to do is guess at some of the trial attorney’s strategies or actions, and the attorney who handled the trial would obviously be in no position to be critical or question his own actions,” noted the former judge.
The 59-year-old “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor won a $10.35 million verdict in June, with a jury citing his claims that Heard accused him of domestic violence in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed violence defamed.
While she didn’t specifically name Depp in the essay, his side argued in court that he was clearly referring to her allegations that he abused her in connection with their 2016 divorce.
The jury awarded Heard $2 million for her counterclaims that Depp defamed her when his attorney Adam Waldman called her claims a hoax.
Bredehoft did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.