In the summer of 2022, Camille Vasquez catapulted into the international limelight when she defended Johnny Depp in the trial of his life against ex-wife Amber Heard. When meeting Vasquez for the first time, one feels an instant sense of trust. She is warm, precise, intuitive, observant, polite, and well-spoken, hence the reasons why she is a powerful and skillful trial attorney. She was seen on TV that summer for almost two months, and the public embraced her commanding persona. Depp’s reputation and career were salvaged by the public’s support and their winning the trial.
On the win, she said, “It was incredibly overwhelming. It was a roller coaster of emotions, mostly just pure happiness and relief for our client, Mr. Depp.” She shared and reflected on overwhelming moments during the case. “There were many moments that I felt overwhelmed during the Depp vs. Heard case. I think that not only the pressure of defending a man who had become a friend, not just a client, but his name, I think, was incredibly overwhelming and stressful.” She coped with the pressure like a pro, and said, “I think my approach to feeling overwhelmed is understanding that this too shall pass and that all we can do is put our heads down and keep working hard at what we know is the right thing to do.” She added, “We just had to keep going because the next day was another day and another opportunity to show that jury that we were telling the truth; our client was telling the truth, and he had been defamed by his ex-wife.”
Defining Justice in the Limelight
After the trial, Vasquez had time to travel with family, but also, she continued to flourish in her career. She was promoted to partner at her firm, Brown Rudnick, and is now also a legal analyst for NBC News.
Vasquez humorously downplays the notion of rest in her busy life. “What's that? What's rest and relaxation?” Despite her packed work schedule, she points out the importance of personal time, sharing details about her current travels with family and incorporating work with leisure—a testament to her ability to maintain a work-life balance. “I've done some resting and relaxing. I've done some traveling and tried to incorporate work travel with personal travel. I was actually in Europe with my family over the summer. I took my niece to London for the first time, her first visit.”
Vasquez’s family serves as a source of support in her career. She draws strength from them and her cultural background in her life and her career. In a recent interview, she discussed inspiring Latina professionals as a Hispanic woman in law and talked about the challenges she's faced and her strategies for overcoming them. “I think that, as a woman and being a Hispanic woman, we face right or wrong. We face more challenges than other peers that maybe aren't Hispanic or that are male.”
In a male-dominated field, Vasquez encourages women to harness their unique strengths and says that “more women are going to law school than men.” Vasquez said, “What we see is a decline in women as they go through the career process, and they become more senior in their law firms. That's when you see a decline in women lawyers because they obviously leave the profession to have children and make those choices. As a legal profession, we should be doing better to promote women once they come back from having children.”
She advises women who aspire to go into law to use their femininity as an advantage and says nothing should keep you from your dreams. She added, “I also think you need to find both a champion and a mentor, and those are sometimes two different people. I think a mentor is someone who will help you along the way and teach you, but a champion is somebody who when the opportunity arises will say to you, ‘It’s your turn; you can do it and I'm going to be right there supporting you.’ “So find that person.”
For Vasquez, she’s found success in allowing people to underestimate her. “I take it as a challenge and as a reason to up my game. And so I think, throughout my career, there have been moments where I’ve been underestimated or passed over for promotions or for opportunities, but it didn’t deter me from keeping the confidence that my parents and my education [instilled in me] and the faith that I had in myself from keeping me fighting for these opportunities and keeping working hard at accomplishing what I knew I could accomplish if given the right opportunities.”
Vasquez believes that the “legal field chose her,” and she knew that from a very young age. After proudly graduating from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles—"I was a Trojan; still am a Trojan”—she continued on to Southwestern Law School to earn her law degree. Her parents were influential when it came time to decide what she would do as a career path.
Vasquez recalled, “I grew up with Hispanic parents. My mother's from Cuba, my father's from Colombia, and they told my sister and me that we had two choices for a career. It was a doctor or a lawyer, and we had to pick one, and they got one of each. My sister is a pediatrician in Los Angeles, and I'm a lawyer.” She continued, “I wasn't great at math and science. Those weren't my strongest subjects in school, so I was always an oral advocate and never shied away from expressing my opinions. So, I think from a young age my mom always said, ‘Oh, this one's going to be the lawyer,’ and you know, I really didn't know what it was to be a lawyer except what you see on television or in films. So, I became a trial lawyer because that's what I thought all lawyers did for a living.”
At Brown Rudnick, her day is not a regular 9-5 job. Vasquez spends long days in the courtroom in addition to her travels. She elaborated on the intricacies of practicing law across different states and the profession’s complexities when it comes to taking on cases. “People ask me, ‘Oh, where are you based?’ And I say, ‘Well, technically Orange County, California, but I feel like I'm on a plane more than I'm home these days.’ I do travel a lot, and with that comes pros and cons. Obviously, I'm jet lagged and tired a lot of the time, but it's also a real pleasure and honor to be able to represent people who trust me with some of the most difficult times in their lives, during a real crisis, which is what litigation is.” She added, “I'm able to service them because of advancements in technology. I do like to go to different places to be able to meet with my clients, and then I can practice in different jurisdictions [when granted permissions].”
When in Orange County, Vasquez says no two days are the same. “A regular day at the firm… first of all, I don't really have regular days. I would say that, because I'm now a partner, I spend most of my time on the phone or in meetings with fellow partners or with my colleagues and associates, strategizing about cases. I try to take a lot of client calls and meet with my clients regularly, whether it's by phone, Zoom, or in person. I also try to spend time with other thought leaders, whether it's public relations professionals or crisis managers, that I collaborate with on cases on a regular basis.” She is currently defending Latin superstar Gloria Trevi against allegations of abuse and exploitation of two girls in the 1990s in Los Angeles.
When taking on cases such as Trevi’s or Depp’s, Vasquez carefully strategizes her plan of action. She explained, “I think for all my cases, I try to think of the case from a really holistic point of view. It's not just what's happening in the courtroom and the pleadings and the filings that we have, but also what's happening in the court of public opinion. And I've learned that those two things go hand in hand, and you have to be able to win not just in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion.” She added, “Framing the narrative around cases really is important to clients. What is the overall strategy when it comes to not just what we do in the courtroom with litigation, but also outside the courtroom, the courtroom of public opinion with media and social media? So, I think something that I try to incorporate in my personal life as well is the fact that people are watching what I do now.”
Representing celebrities comes with public scrutiny and requires her to maintain confidentiality. Vasquez said, “I think that just like anyone else that's in a crisis in litigation, they are under tremendous pressure and it's usually the worst time of their lives. So I think [we must] be compassionate towards them and what they're going through and realize that, yes, this is a crisis and a moment in their lives, their careers and who they are as individuals. Whether it's famous singers or actors, they will get over this crisis and they will be able to go back to focusing on their art and what they do for a living. So, it's having compassion for them and helping guide them through what is a very complicated, stressful process.”
Of her strong work ethic, Vasquez gives credit to her Cuban-Colombian heritage. “I don't know if it's per se the fact that I'm Cuban-Colombian, but I do think that my parents as individuals instilled a really strong work ethic in both my sister and me. And they also instilled in us this confidence that we could do anything we set our mind to if we worked hard at it. Maybe that's the immigrant mentality of people who come to this country to give their children and the future a better opportunity than they had. But I definitely grew up around people like my parents who were so committed to our education. My parents often said to both my sister and me, ‘We’re not leaving you with a lot, but we are leaving you with your education. That's something that no one can ever take away from you.’ And I'm so grateful that I can always fall back on. I credit my parents for that.”
Vasquez shared her vision in the upcoming years is to continue to represent diverse clients and furthering her impact within the legal community. “Something that I truly feel I was born to do… when I look in the mirror, I see an advocate. I see somebody who enjoys standing up for what I think is right. The fact that my clients entrust me to be their voice, again, during some of the most difficult, painful parts of their lives is a real honor. I just hope to be able to continue doing good work for the people that I believe in.”
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Christina Rosas Anastasiou
- Senior Editor
- Jessica Catignani
- Photography
- Meagan Shuptar
- Retouching
- Brianna Kish
- Styling
- Krystal Collier
- Hair & Makeup
- Lellis Ribeiro
- Filmmaker
- Rafal Cwiok
