C.A. Goldberg, PLLC on open letter in support of Amber Heard
C.A. Goldberg, PLLC today joins leaders in the field of women’s rights advocacy and domestic violence and sexual assault awareness in publishing an open letter denouncing the harassment and intimidation of those who report abuse.
The letter comes in the wake of rising misuse of defamation lawsuits to silence survivors of abuse. Heard recently lost a defamation suit brought by her ex-husband for an op-ed in which she said she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
The harassment of Amber Heard and her supporters has had far-reaching consequences, potentially chilling the willingness of individuals to report domestic and sexual abuse.
Disinformation and victim-blaming tropes that circulated on social media during the Depp/Heard trial are now being used against others who have alleged abuse.
C.A. Goldberg, PLLC stands firmly – alongside National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Law Center, Equality Now and others listed below – against the harassment and intimidation of those who report sexual and domestic abuse.
Enough is enough.
An Open Letter in Support of Amber Heard
Five months ago, the verdict in the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard deeply concerned many professionals in the fields of intimate partner and sexual violence.
As many, including A.O. Scott for the New York Times have noted, the vilification of Ms. Heard and ongoing online harassment of her and those who have voiced support for her have been unprecedented in both vitriol and scale.
Much of this harassment was fueled by disinformation, misogyny, biphobia, and a monetized social media environment where a woman’s allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault were mocked for entertainment. The same disinformation and victim-blaming tropes are now being used against others who have alleged abuse.
In our opinion, the Depp v. Heard verdict and continued discourse around it indicate a fundamental misunderstanding of intimate partner and sexual violence and how survivors respond to it. The damaging consequences of the spread of this misinformation are incalculable.
We have grave concerns about the rising misuse of defamation suits to threaten and silence survivors.
We condemn the public shaming of Amber Heard and join in support of her. We support the ability of all to report intimate partner and sexual violence free of harassment and intimidation.
Signatories (Alphabetical)
Organizations
Associazione Iroko Onlus
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE)
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
DAWN Democratic Activists for Women Now
Engendered Collective
Enough Is Enough Voter Project
Equal Rights Advocates
Equality Now
Esperanza United (formerly Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network)
Every Voice Coalition
Fearless, Hudson Valley, Inc.
Feminist Majority Foundation
Futures Without Violence
C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, Victims’ Rights Law Firm
Hope’s Door
Know Your IX
LIFT: Living in Freedom Together, Worcester
National Organization for Women Foundation
National Organization for Women, Virginia Chapter
National Women’s Law Center
Refuge
Réseau International des Mères en Lutte, France
Sakhi for South Asian Women
Sanctuary for Families
Ms. Magazine, Katherine Spillar, Executive Editor
The Asian Feminist
The Safe Center LI
WeSpoke
Women’s March Action
Women’s March Foundation
Women’s Equal Justice Project
Experts and Advocates
Renée B. Adams, Professor, University of Oxford
Dr. Esohe Aghatise, Executive Director, Associazione Iroko Onlus
Sara Ahmed, Independent Scholar, Author, “Complaint!”
Kate Amber, PgCert, Founder, End Coercive Control USA
Dr. Adrienne Barnett, Reader in Law, Brunel Law School, Brunel University London
Dr. Nicole Bedera, Sociologist
Nicole Bell, Founder and CEO, LIFT Living in Freedom Together
Antoinette Bonsignore, J.D., Legal and Prosecutorial Analyst, Case Systems Training Review
Program, Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission
Anna Boucher, Associate Professor in Public Policy and Political Science (LSE) and admitted
Solicitor, Supreme Court NSW, Australia
Lindsey Boylan, Women’s Rights Activist
Dr. Stephanie Ann Brandt MD, Faculty and Chairman, Ethics Committee, New York
Psychoanalytic Institute, New York, NY, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell
Medical College, New York, Experienced Forensic Evaluation and Testimony in Family,
Supreme and Federal ( EDNY + SDNY ) Child focused Litigation
Susan J. Brison, Eunice and Julian Cohen Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values,
Dartmouth College
Laura S Brown, PhD ABPP, psychologist in private practice, past President, APA Division of
Trauma Psychology and Society for The Psychology of Women
Twiss Butler, Feminist
Rachel Camp, Professor from Practice and Co-Director, Georgetown University Domestic
Violence Clinic (title for identification purposes only)
Andrew Thomas Cicchetti, Ph.D. LCSW-R
Nancy Chi Cantalupo, Associate Professor of Law, Wayne State University Law School (title and
institution provided for identification purposes only)
Kali Casab, The Voices and Faces Project
Lauren B. Cattaneo, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, George Mason University
Debra Chopp, Clinical Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Seo-Young Chu Associate Professor Queens College, CUNY
Dr. Christine Marie Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW Coercive Control Advocate, Educator, Researcher
& Survivor
Dr. Elizabeth Dalgarno, SHERA Research Group
Michele Landis Dauber, Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law, Stanford Law School (title and
institution for identification purposes only)
Ella Dawson, Author
Drew Dixon, Producer, Activist
Margaret B. Drew, Associate Professor of Law, UMass Law School
Prof. Dr. Jennifer Drobac
Danielle Pelfrey Duryea
Erin Dwyer-Frazier, Attorney and Domestic Violence Advocate
Heidi Eilers, PhD, BCBA-D, CCTP, Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral, Certified
Clinical Trauma Professional
Deborah Epstein, Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Gender, Violence, and Law,
Georgetown Law University Center
Ray Epstein, President/Founder of Student Activists Against Sexual Assault at Temple
University.
Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Bill Flack, Professor of Psychology, Bucknell University
Professor Michael Flood, Queensland University of Technology
Terry Forliti, Communication Coordinator for Upside Sex Trafficking Initiative, Minneapolis,
Minnesota
Jaclyn Friedman, editor of “Yes Means Yes” and “Believe Me”
Professor Aisha K. Gill, Ph.D. CBE | Professor of Criminology
Professor Leigh Gilmore, Ohio State University, Author, “The #MeToo Effect: What Happens
When We Believe Women”
Lisa Goodman, Ph.D., Professor, Boston College
Leigh Goodmark, Marjorie Cook Professor of Law and Co-Director, Clinical Law Program
Julie Green, Research Assistant, Violence Against Women and Children team, Department of
Social Work, The University of Melbourne
Kit Gruelle, Advocate, Survivor, Film Subject for HBO Documentary Private Violence
Emiliana Guereca, Founder and Executive Director Women’s March Action and Women’s March
Foundation
Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director, Equality Now
Tirion Havard, Associate Professor, England UK
Judith L. Herman, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry (Part Time), Harvard Medical School
CarlLa Horton, M.P.A., Executive Director, Hope’s Door
Doreen Hunter, Co-Founder, Americas Conference to End Coercive Control (ACECC)
Holly Jacobs, Ph.D, Founder, Board Member, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
Hans Johnson, President, East Area Progressive Democrats
Dr. Emma Katz, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Mara Keire Senior Research Fellow, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, UK
Dr. Margaret Kertesz, Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
Amanda Kippert, Editor-in-Chief, DomesticShelters.org, Co-Host, Toxic the Podcast
Judge Judy Harris Kluger, Executive Director, Sanctuary for Families
Kellyann Kostyal-Larrier, Executive Director, Fearless! Hudson Valley, Inc.
Dean Laurie Kohn, George Washington Law School
Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, Clinical Psychologist, Psychotraumatologist
Julianna Lee, Clinical Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Dorchen A. Leidholdt, Esq., Director, Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services at Sanctuary
for Families
Edward Lloyd, Evan M. Frankel Clinical Professor Emeritus in Environmental Law, Columbia
University School of Law
Dr Laura E. Ludtke, Independent Scholar
Linda MacDonald, Persons Against Non-State Torture, co-author “Women Unsilenced Our
Refusal To Let Torturer-Traffickers Win”
Catharine A. MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at Michigan Law, and the
long-term James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (all titles for
identification purposes only)
David Mandel, Executive Director, Safe and Together Institute
Jane Manning, Director, Women’s Equal Justice Project
Joan Meier, National Family Violence Law Center, Professor of Clinical Law, George
Washington University Law School
Carolyn Modeen, Sun Cities West Valley NOW
Amy Myers, Acting Director, Gender Justice Clinic, Washington College of Law (for
identification purposes only)
Natalie Nanasi, Associate Professor, SMU Dedman School of Law, Director, Judge Elmo B.
Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women
Laura Beth Nielsen, JD, PhD, Professor & Chair, Department of Sociology, Northwestern
University, Research Professor, American Bar Foundation, President, Law and Society
Association, Author, “License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech” (titles
for identification purposes only)
Emer O’Toole, PhD, Professor, Concordia University
Natalie Page, #TheCourtSaid Founder, Survivor Family Network Director
David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Stanford University
Reena Parikh, Director of Civil Rights Clinic, Boston College Law School (title for identification
purposes only)
Jaime Cabeza Pereiro, Professor of Labor and Social Security Law, University of Vigo
Alison Phipps, Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University
Christie Pitts
Nicole Prause, Ph.D., Senior Statistician, University of California, Los Angeles (title for
identification purposes only)
Dr. Charlotte Proudman, Barrister and Academic
Dr. Shivaun Quinlivan, Associate Professor, University of Galway
Professor Tracey Raney, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada
Anne K. Ream, Activist and Founder of The Voices and Faces Project
Diane Rosenfeld, Lecturer on Law, Director, Gender Violence Program, Harvard Law School
Jennifer Robinson, Australian human rights lawyer and barrister at Doughty St Chambers, U.K.
counsel to Amber Heard, Author, “How Many More Women?”
Lily Kay Ross, MDiv, PhD Feminism and Ethics Research Fellow, Psymposia
David A. Santacroce, Clinical Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Jeanne Sarson, co-author, “Women Unsilenced Our Refusal To Let Torturer-Traffickers Win,”
Co-Founder Persons Against Non-State Torture
Purna Sen, PhD Visiting Professor, Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, LMU Special Advisor
to the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court
Dr. John Simister, Ph.D., Domestic Violence and Economics Researcher, Senior Lecturer,
Business School Manchester Metropolitan University
Ann Simonton, Founder Director of Media Watch: For Improving image of Women in Media
Rita Smith, National Expert on Violence Against Women, Former Executive Director of the
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV)
Rachel Louise Snyder, Professor, American University, Author, “No Visible Bruises,”
Evan Stark, Ph.D, MSW, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University
Leslie Morgan Steiner, Advocate, Author, “Crazy Love”
Ruth Silver Taube, Adjunct Professor of Law, Santa Clara University, Legal Services Co-Chair,
South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, Delegate, Santa Clara County’s Human
Trafficking Commission (all titles for identification purposes only)
Gloria Steinem, Writer, Activist
Dr. Jessica Taylor, Chartered Psychologist, CEO of Victim Focus
Alison Turkos, Survivor + Advocate
Vanessa Tyson, Associate Professor of Politics, Scripps College
Robin West, J.D., Professor of Law, Georgetown Law School
Sophia Yen, M.D., Adolescent Medicine Specialist, CEO/Founder of Pandia Health
Amy Ziering, Filmmaker
All titles and institutions provided for identification purposes only for all signatories
If you or your organization would like to join as a signatory of this letter, please email your name, title, and organization (if applicable) to sign@amberopenletter.com from a verifiable email address, or visit amberopenletter.com.
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