Famed lawyer Camille Vasquez is apparently not getting along well with her new colleagues at NBC.
The attorney, who gained national attention for representing actor Johnny Depp in his defamation trial against Amber Heard, was hired by NBC as an on-air legal analyst last month.
At around the same time, though, NBCUniversal started laying off journalists in almost every division.
Now, RadarOnline reports, Vasquez is not popular amongst her new co-workers who question how the network found the money to pay the celebrity attorney.
‘Poor Camille arrived at precisely the wrong time,’ an unnamed source told the outlet. ‘The week she arrived, double digits of workers were fired — yet NBC found the money to hire a 38-year-old beauty queen.’
The unnamed source went on to suggest that if Vasquez had not represented Depp in the televised trial, she would not have been hired.
‘Camille wouldn’t have been booked as a guest before working for Johnny Depp, and now she’s on the staff, and folks around the office are mad.’
In fact, her employment at NBC came just seven months after she successfully defended the 59-year-old in the defamation case against his ex-wife.
After the trial concluded at the end of June — when Depp was awarded $15million in punitive and compensatory damages — the Hollywood Reporter claimed that at least three national news divisions inquired about her coming on board as an analyst or contributor.
She then made her debut on NBC’s Today Show on January 9, discussing the recent Idaho college student murders.
Host Hoda Kotb introduced her as ‘NBC News’ legal analyst,’ before asking Vasquez about her thoughts on how social media and internet sleuths might affect the case – something she is pretty familiar with following the attention that the Depp and Heard case received.
‘This has become something that really captivated the country,’ she said of the death of four young women who were killed in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
‘And so people want to talk about the evidence, they want to talk about the human impact.
‘I think it can be helpful to investigators, they pleaded to the public and asked for information about the [murder suspect Brian Kohberger’s] white [car], but it could also be harmful, when you start naming someone.’
NBC then confirmed her hiring in a Tweet, writing, ‘New: Camille Vasquez joins @NBCNews as a legal analyst.’
At the same time, she continued to work at the law firm Brown Rudnick, where she serves as co-chair of it’s brand and reputation management group.
The decision quickly became controversial, with many pointing out that Today Show host Savannah Guthrie’s husband, Michael Feldman, consulted for Vasquez and other members of Depp’s legal team.
Matters became worse on on January 12, when NBCUniversal executives decided to cull the staff at NBC News and MSNBC.
Sources said the layoffs were in the ‘double digits’ out of a workforce of about 3,500 employees, with CNN reporting that the number of people laid off was about 75.
The staff cuts were scattered across the divisions, Deadline reported, though no on-air talent was affected.
DailyMail.com has reached out to NBCUniversal, Vasquez and the NBC News Guild for comment.
Vaquez was born in July 1984 to parents Leonel and Marilia Vasquez, who are of Colombian descent. They live in a $1 million home in Buena Park, according to public records.
Her father once owned a UPS Store in Anaheim, however, the location has been a FedEx store for the past 10 years, an employee previously told DailyMail.com.
Vasquez graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in arts, communications and political science in 2006, Newsweek reported.
The fluent Spanish speaker went to Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles from 2007 to 2010 and worked at one law firm before joining her current practice, Brown Rudnick LLP, as an associate.
She focuses on ‘plaintiff-side defamation suits, with additional experience litigating contract disputes, business-related torts, and employment-related claims,’ according to her bio on the law firm’s website.
She’s also listed as having ‘extensive experience handling parallel reputation management and crisis communications issues arising from these engagements.’ She does not have any public social media profiles.
During the trial that made her famous, many fans started to wonder if romantic feelings had developed between Depp and Vasquez, after they noticed a slew of flirty interactions between the two – including whispering in each other’s ears, giggling together, and smirking with one another.
Rumors of a budding romance were fueled after a video of the Pirates of the Caribbean star helping the lawyer untangle her iPhone charger went viral on TikTok. He was also spotted pulling out her chair for her.
However, body language expert Judi James explained exclusively to DailyMail.com at the time that the amorous moments between them were most likely not due to a secret affair, but instead, were all part of a plan to make Depp seem like a ‘romantic hero.’
She said that linking Depp to a ‘fresh, smart, fragrant, and confident-looking woman’ would ‘destroy’ Heard’s recount of their toxic relationship.
Some people on social media have also pointed out that Vasquez appeared to be wearing an engagement or wedding ring during her court appearance.
It was later revealed that Vasquez was dating Brit Edward Owens, 39, a Cambridge-educated senior director at WeWork, where he is in charge of real estate for Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed the romantic link, and told DailyMail.com that the couple met in London in November, at an upscale gastropub The Cow.
‘It’s quite a new relationship but Edward is smitten with her,’ another source said. ‘He has visited Camille in the US since this trial started and she plans to visit him in the UK as soon as the case is over.’
‘It’s long distance and they’re both high flyers in their respective careers, but they’re hoping to make it work,’ the person said.
In addition to her rumored relationship with Depp, Vasquez gained immense attention after she cross-examined Heard on the stand, with some fans claiming that she ‘annihilated’ and ‘obliterated’ the star with her fierce questions.
Vasquez said to Heard during the cross examination: ‘Your lies have been exposed to the world multiple times?’ to which Heard responded, ‘I haven’t lied about anything.’
Vasquez pressed Heard on many of her inconsistencies and accusations, and she even became short with Heard when she started to talk to the jury at one point.
‘There is no question pending so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t make an argument to the jury. It’s inappropriate,’ Vasquez snapped at Heard.
‘Camille Vasquez is definitely one of the best lawyers I’ve ever seen. She’s absolutely annihilating Amber heard. OMG,’ wrote one person on Twitter afterwards.
‘That was an obliteration,’ agreed someone else. ‘Camille Vasquez, you queen.’
Another added, ‘This is what a real strong independent woman looks like. Camille’s intelligence and talent is so inspiring for women everywhere. She is a true example of strength facing evil.’
In the end, Heard was awarded $2million in compensatory damages out of the $100million she was seeking in her countersuit against her ex-husband, but was awarded nothing in punitive damages.
And, despite the jury awarding Depp $15 million in total, the judge reduced the $5 million in punitive damages from that amount to the Virginia maximum of $350,000, meaning he should receive $8.35million in total after paying Heard the $2million.
Vasquez later made headlines once again, when she agreed to represent Kanye West in his disputes with sneaker company Adidas — only to drop him as a client over his anti-Semitic remarks.
But insiders at TMZ revealed that she later informed her firm, Brown Rudnick, that she would no longer work with Kanye, after he doubled down on his anti-Semitic remarks.
The firm still reportedly attempted to work with Kanye if he publicly retracted his remarks, but he refused to do so.
As a source for The New York Post claimed: ‘After Ye doubled down this weekend, Camille dropped him. The firm still wanted to make it work but on the condition he retract, he wouldn’t – so he fired them.’
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