Then just as suddenly, Ghomeshis lawyer strides up the centre aisle to the defence table, sweeping past in a stunning black dress and designer jacket like some exotic import from Suits. Marie understands she is marketing a product just like Nike is, says Breese Davies, a vice-president of the Criminal Lawyers Association. It was Heneins style that caught the eye of Alan Young, her first professor of criminal law at Osgoode Hall. Could the Bryant case serve as a template for Ghomeshis defence? Her tactics kept Michael Bryant out of jail. Marie Henein is the smartest, toughest, most sought-after defence lawyer in the city. It was time, she says. As a criminal lawyer, youre always an outsider. SEAN SPEER: If you think about the big issues facing the countryincluding demographic pressures, our place in the world, and climate changethe risk is that in the absence of such leadership, we succumb to inaction. Shes always entertaining, says former chief justice Warren Winkler, who lauds Henein for her ability to cut straight to the crux of a case. We resolve most of our cases out of court.. That is what bothers me. By Sarah Boesveld Her tactics kept Michael Bryant out of jail. Were a work in progress., That exodus infuriates Henein, but her response is characteristically contrarian. Shes carefulshes not rude or impolitebut if you think youre going to push her around, theres going to be kickback.. And it was very apparent in Ottawa that that is how it is. She recalls being singled out in her Catholic grade school, St. Leonards, and called ugly names. In its senior ranks, there were only a handful of women left. We can sustain conversation and we can withstand opposite views. SEAN SPEER: Your response to that question reminds me of something a colleague said of you. But recent cases have brought you to Ottawa and exposed you to the countrys bureaucratic and political culture. The court acquitted Ghomeshi stating that there were no sufficient proofs to verify his crime. On the sprawling campus of St. Josephs Morrow Park, a Catholic girls high school on Bayview south of Steeles, Henein met the two classmates who remain her best friends today, Laura Nemchin and Rita Mason, both of whom are now also lawyers. The rock star criminal defence lawyer captivated the audience at Moses Znaimer's ideacity Wednesday the way she captivates and convinces judges, . Theyve positioned you as a bit of an outsider. Before Ghomeshi hired her, the highest-profile of Heneins clients was the provinces former attorney general, Michael Bryant, whose drive home from an anniversary dinner in August 2009 turned into a nightmare encounter that famously left a bike courier named Darcy Allan Sheppard dead. It was like a movie, he says. Thats extraordinary to me. Shes so good that she can get away with it, he notes. Ghomeshi was acquitted of all charges, on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt.[16][17]. None of this decision-making is evidence-based. Obstinate, she left anyway with Marie in tow, landing in a crowded apartment on Jameson Avenue with her parents and three brothers. He walked into the august halls of the Law Society of Upper Canada to find the benchers chambers transformed into a spooky twilit jungle. Marie Henein (born 1966)[1] is a Canadian criminal defence lawyer. When Bryant emerged from custody charged with dangerous driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death, friends in the legal community rushed to recommend lawyers. Nor was he surprised to hear Ghomeshi had hired her. Even one of her most grateful clients, former attorney general Michael Bryant, has described her as someone who seemed to channel Hannibal Lecter, and another, one-time minor league hockey coach Dave Frost, dubbed her my shark.. Until she hired Matthew Gourlay, all her associates had been female, and, without exception, they praise her as a mentor and hard-driving mother hen. At times, Frost was frustrated that Henein refrained from going directly for the jugular, but she insisted on what he calls the slow burn. When he chafed at her obsession with what seemed like some minor detail, she retorted that no detail was too smallor, as it turned out, too lurid. Then in the summer before she started law school, he arrived back home gravely ill. She was at his side when he was diagnosed with one of the citys first cases of full-blown AIDS. [5] Henein was called to the bar in 1992. Maybury is an African-American woman with a nose stud much like Marie's, gold streaks in her hair and a taste for beaded-and-embroidered jeans. Youre going to fuck up, but I wish women would stop beating themselves up about not being the perfect wife and mother. Our human nature makes us sitting ducks. We are unable to identify her social media profile and seems like Marie doesnt have spare time to be there. Frost was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation, allegedly having manipulated his teenage players on the Quinte Hawks into threesomes a decade earlier. What does it say about the lawyers that are standing beside victims? Im going to focus a moment on criminal justice. Funds raised through the online auction help The Shoe Project in its mission to hold writing workshops and public speaking performances . In a profession where an ad in the Yellow Pages was once considered showy, that website shot has provoked heated debate. What is incredible is that all parties agree on criminal justice, and its not reform. There really is no stone left unturned, says Gleitman, who is now an assistant Crown attorney. Heneins office, a low-rise lodged among the furniture emporiums along King Street East, is a study in minimalist white. Hiring her as his research assistant, he concluded she was a natural for that wing of the bar where bravado counted for more than good grades. But to disinvite someone because you feel that a high school or university student cant bear a discussion about the justice system, and what a defence lawyers role is, is something out of Brave New World. It was audacious and it was led based on a fundamental belief that we as a country needed this. Ghomeshi trial: Everything wrong with sexual assault law When she argued the appeal of Marcia Dooley, convicted of murdering her seven-year-old stepson, Randal, in what the judge called Canadas worst case of child abuse, Henein says she felt it was an obligationone of those cases where youre really at your last kick at the can. Still, her kids occasionally pay the price for such a caseload, bridling against her hypervigilance. I would not have seen it in any other context, so it was extremely eye-opening to me. The Shoe Project MEDIA ADVISORY. With one remaining Liberal premier, is the partys brand in trouble? But these days, questions about the tactics Henein will wield in defending Ghomeshi are also being raised by some legal scholars. Its all part of the bullshit Cinderella story. She dishes out the same tough-love brand of feminism in speeches and articles, blaming Martha Stewart and her ilk for their toxic message of perfectionism. Were under siege. Walker's son was sent back to Canada shortly after his mother's arrest, and Walker was scheduled to be sent back to Canada on Wednesday after waiving a formal extradition process . I just about laughed myself to tears, he says. It wasnt just Samis death that affected her, he says. With that, two of the six women who came forward to file formal complaints against Ghomeshi have been eliminated from the case. In the documents, Normans lawyer Marie Henein points to statements federal bureaucrats made to the RCMP. "The Jian Ghomeshi Case: A System on Trial". I just dont feel a need to justify what I do or explain myself., Thats hardly an unexpected riposte from a woman who has never been constrained by what others thinkone who refuses to be limited by the usual definitions, whether as a lawyer, a mother or a feminist. After one woman testified shed been coerced into giving Frost a blow job, Henein inquired whether she had noticed any medical anomalies in those close quarters. When Marie was four years old, her family settled in Toronto. As of now, high-profile accused in the city, she is the prior choice. Being with the firm, Marie has fought numerous criminal cases and has been able to make her established as one of the most reputed, respected and fearless lawyers in the city. We are anxious to have this heard in a courtroom before a judge.. While most criminal law firms subsist largely on Legal Aid, their fees set by the government, the plastic surgeons and other professionals who call on Henein to salvage their licences or save them from sexual assault charges can usually afford her steep rates, which can run as high as $800 to $1,000 an hour. Heneins brother, Peter, now an intellectual property lawyer at Cassels Brock, sees the impact of that loss today. I dont think that the public sees exactly what is going on. The woman known for her strategic savvy had no office, no clients and no savings; when she did find loft space on King Street West, she had to borrow the first and last months rent from her parents. But what she remembers best about the case is walking into Greenspans office on the eve of their departure for Halifax. If two men arent of the same mind on an issue, youre not viewed as a person who betrayed their gender, youre viewed as people who disagree., She does not think the system needs to be tweaked in response to sexual assault cases. Toronto criminal lawyer Marie Heneins net worth is estimated to be in millions of dollars but the actual figure of her net worth is still under review. I always wanted to beat up the boys, not physically, but with my tongue.. For Henein, the timing was not exactly propitious. Their courtship, wedged between staggering workloads, was spent sampling the citys hottest new restaurants, an enthusiasm Henein had caught from Greenspan. None of it deals with Law Reform Commissions. For promoting and raising the popularity of the firm, an advertising agency was hired. Copyright 2023 St. Joseph Communications. It was a reaction to all these self-congratulatory videos that were going around, she says. Danielle Robitaille, a former dancer, helped choreograph every move in the cross examinations. The truth is, I want to be Marie Henein. I had a mother who was angry at how women were treated in her culture, Henein says. Weiz had been fingered by two others as the one who had delivered the fatal blow, but Henein zeroed in on the quicksand of their shifting accounts. She convinced the other to mark all the locations on a crime scene diagram where he had misled police while she spat out the words, Lie, lie, lie, in a relentless tattoo. We were not the pretty, popular girls, Henein says. Frost can still recall Henein pacing the courtroom, snapping those folders with a menacing crack, swooping in whenever a female witness tried to change her story. Marie Henein, criminal defence lawyer for Jian Ghomeshi. Popularly known as the Lawyer of Canada. I wont be bullied no matter how many lawyers the government brings to court. This was the full power of the government directly focused on an accused person, and when you began to peel back the layers, it was not very nice. I understand that the public says, Well, were opposed in principle. Whatever, if youre opposed in principle. She developed an interest in the law field and was active, energetic and tactful from her early days. Despite the obvious time and attention she has devoted to that artful presentation, she waves off questions about her designer wardrobe. I know who I am, I know what my beliefs are. SEAN SPEER: Its even worse because of the way our electoral system works. Pure theatre.. Two years ago when Scott Hutchison, a respected former crown attorney, joined her as a named partner, she hired an advertising agency to design a campaign that would show Henein Hutchison was no ordinary criminal law firm. I thought: Were not the United Appeal; were lawyers! . Shes positioned herself to be the go-to lawyer for rich and famous people in trouble., Not that branding brought Ghomeshi to Heneins doorstep. We dont want that., Related:Exclusive: Lucy DeCoutere on the Ghomeshi disaster, Shehas an unwavering belief in the Canadianjustice system. That leaves four remaining accusers, and at his first trial next February, Henein will confront three of them for the first time. In one video, released for Christmas 2012, she stomped through the office on a mock rampage, knocking over eggnog and Christmas trees to Youre a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. When it went viral, she topped it the following year with a hilarious takeoff on the movie American Hustle, prancing in 70s bell-bottoms and a blonde Farrah Fawcett wig as her associates shouted raunchy taunts. Henein started working with Marc Rosenberg who was the partner of her earlier boss Edward Greenspan. In it, Edelson advised colleagues defending sexual assault cases to whack the complainant hard with every available fact that might call into question her integrity or grip on reality. During one forum nearly two decades ago, she slyly noted that, although a complainants sexual and medical histories may be technically inadmissible, in a trial before a judge alone, not a juryas Ghomeshis will bethere was no harm in arguing for their relevance anyway. Its a perception that Henein knows all too well. I cannot bring you back to the day you sat at home and you were not charged., Read our full coverage of the Jian Ghomeshi trial, Related: Though the appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, her client has become free for the verdict of not being guilty. Marie Henein (born 1966) is a Canadian criminal defence lawyer. My son calls me the Director of Funland Security, she says. Its not a matter of my comfort level. 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