Amber Heard appoints attorney to defend her from USD 50 million defamation suit

Amber Heard has recruited attorney Roberta Kaplan to defend her from the USD 50 million lawsuit filed against her by ex-husband and actor Johnny Depp.

Kaplan is a known name and is the co-founder of Time's Up Legal Defence Fund. He has represented women in similar cases who were sued for making sexual abuse allegations, reported Variety.

Heard is facing a defamation suit filed by Depp earlier in March, three months after Heard published an op-ed in the Washington Post.

In the article, Heard alluded to the backlash she faced after accusing the former husband of domestic violence.

However, Depp denies the claims levelled by Heard, which first arose in the course of their 2016 divorce.

Depp, in the defamation suit, has alleged that all the publicity going around the issue has caused him financial harm, including the decision by Disney to drop him from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, after the company was prompted to do so.

Heard's newly recruited attorney, Kaplan has, however, argued that Depp was nowhere mentioned in the op-ed.

"Fundamentally -- and contrary to the premise of Mr. Depp's case -- it was not about him and what he did to Ms. Heard during their marriage," she wrote.

"It was about her and what happened to her after she came forward," Kaplan added.

"In Mr. Depp's view... Ms. Heard can never speak about the backlash she endured after reporting him, or about the death threats against her, without impliedly re-accusing him of abuse," she added.

She even claimed that Heard's beliefs and experiences about the popular #MeToo movement aren't always about Depp, who believes them to be.