BACKGROUNDER: Criminal lawyer Marie Henein and her high profile cases

Prominent criminal lawyer Marie Henein has been hired to defend Jian Ghomeshi, the Q radio host who was fired by CBC last month and is now accused of five criminal offences including sexual assault.

Henein, who opened Henein and Associates in 2002, now called Henein Hutchinson LLP, was called to the bar in 1992 in Toronto. She got her law degree from Osgoode Hall and a master’s in law from Columbia University in 1991, according to Canadian Lawyer.

She was named one of the 25 most influential lawyers by Canadian Lawyer in 2011, is a past president of the Advocates’ Society and was an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School until 2006.

She is also one of the founders of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s Appellate Duty Counsel program, which provided inmates with pro bono defence lawyers.

Below are some of her high-profile court victories:

May 25, 2010: Former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant retains Henein in 2009 after he’s charged in the bicycle death of bike messenger Darcy Sheppard. The charges of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death are dropped.

2009: She represents Bradley Harrison at the Supreme Court of Canada and gets his 35-kilogram cocaine seizure with a street estimate of $4 million quashed.

2008: Hockey agent David Frost is acquitted of sexual exploitation.

1999: Daniel Weiz, one of the young men charged in the 1999 beating death of Toronto teen Dmitri Baranovski, was cleared of all charges.