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American attorney Kathleen Zellner has joined the legal team of actor Johnny Depp to fight against ex-wife Amber Heard. The 58-year-old actor has hired the renowned Making A Murderer lawyer known for overturning wrongful convictions.
In March 2021, the Dark Shadows actor lost his sensational libel suit in London, United Kingdom, against a columnist who dubbed him a "wife-beater." He was later denied permission to appeal.
Depp, however, is continuing to sue Heard in a United States court. The famed attorney has confirmed joining Depp's legal team in an official statement to the outlet Page Six.
“I have spent the last 30 plus years defending individuals who have been falsely accused of wrongdoing. I welcome adding Johnny Depp to that list and joining his dream team who share this view and have so effectively been advocating for him.”
The actor's legal team, which currently includes litigator Benjamin Chew, is waging a $50 million libel lawsuit against Heard in the country. The lawsuit against the 35-year-old actress stems from an opinion piece she wrote for the media outlet Washington Post in 2019 about domestic violence, which Depp believes was pointed at him.
Despite not taking any names in the sensational piece, Depp insists the article is related to him after Amber had previously alleged him attacking her in Los Angeles in 2015, causing her two black eyes, a broken lip, and nose. Depp, however, denies such allegations against him.
Brief information about Kathleen Zellner
Attorney Kathleen Zellner is well known for advocating on behalf of wrongful convictions. Originally from Midland, Texas, she was the second of seven children.
Her father, Owen Thomas, was a geologist and her mother, Winifred, was a chemist who later became a nurse. Zellner moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with her family when she was nine years old. As a student, she attended Marquette University in Wisconsin and the University of Missouri and graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Kathleen Zellner earned her Doctor of Juris degree from Northern Illinois University College of Law in 1991, where she was editor-in-chief of Law Review and worked for 2nd District Illinois Appellate Court justice George W. Lindberg.
Zellner's extensive client list includes Steven Avery, the subject of the Netflix series "Making a Murderer", which was aired in 2015. Before he was exonerated by DNA testing and released in 2003, Avery spent 18 years of a 32-year sentence in prison. But two years later, he was charged with an entirely different murder.
In 2007, after his murder trial for Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach, the Netflix series's subject, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Both Avery and Kathleen Zellner are currently fighting the conviction.
Kevin Fox, a man falsely accused of killing his daughter Riley, was also represented by Zellner. He was exonerated by the DNA evidence he sent to a private lab equipped with more sophisticated technology. Furthermore, she was awarded $15.5 million in 2007 for violating Fox's civil rights.
