Amber Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft has been seen breaking in down in tears in the bathroom of the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Virginia.
Court attendees took to social media to reveal that the actress’ lawyer was seen headed to the ladies’ room “crying” after closing arguments were heard in the high-profile case.
Johnny Depp is suing his former wife for $US50 million ($A69.6 million), claiming she defamed him when she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in an opinion piece she wrote for The Washington Post.
In a Twitter post, one user said Bredehoft appeared to be visibly upset as she left the court.
“Late after trial, before the jury went home, #ElaineBredehoft left for the bathroom crying. We all felt terrible for her,” he wrote.
“After she came out, we tried to make her smile. I hope it helped.”
The same Twitter user later added: “We don’t know why she was crying, but we all noted how it must be hard for her to deal with all of this public attention while defending a client she probably doesn’t like.”
Former LA District Attorney Emily D. Baker addressed the reports in a recent Livestream on her YouTube channel, saying she sympathized with Bredehoft.
“Crying after a case like this, there is no shame for, it is a release of emotion,” she said.
“This had to be a hard case for Elaine, I would never want to try.
“And I’m going to be hard on Elaine because she mocked Johnny Depp’s voice and there were a few other things that I really didn’t like that she did.
“But this is a hard case to try, it is hard to do this in front of the public eye.
“Six-week trials are exhausting. Exhausting.
“So I do not fault her for crying, it is a very human response after a very long trial.”
The lawyer – who has emerged as a leading commentator on the high-profile defamation case – raised other possible tensions that could’ve to lead to the emotional display.
She speculated that Bredehoft could’ve been feeling flustered after her co-counsel Ben Rottenborn spent a long time delivering his closing argument, giving her little time to deliver her address to the jury.
“I still think in closing, she didn’t get the amount of time she thought,” Baker said.
“I wonder if Rottenborn rolled over.
“I wonder – this is pure speculation, pure speculation – if Rottenborn ran over what he had allotted for closing and I wonder if Elaine then felt on the back foot to have to cram everything she needed to say very quickly.
“She does not seem to work well under that type of time pressure, I can understand that.
“Look there are days where it’s like ‘Oh we’ve been streaming for three hours, how the f*** did that happen?’I just don’t know.
“Or was Rottenborn trying to minimize the amount of time she was before the jury? Don’t know. That would probably not go well behind the scenes. Is it possible? Anything’s possible.”