Marie Henein

Marie Therese Henein KC (born 1966)^[1] is a Canadian civil litigator and criminal defence lawyer.^[2][3] She is a partner of Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, a law firm in Toronto.

Marie Henein KC
Born	1966 (age 58–59) Cairo, Egypt
Nationality	Canadian
Alma mater	Osgoode Hall Law School (LLB) Columbia Law School (LLM)
Occupation(s)	Civil litigator and criminal lawyer
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Glen Jennings

Early life

Henein was born in Cairo, Egypt, to a Lebanese Maronite father and an Egyptian mother. Her grandmother was Palestinian. Her father, Joseph Henein, worked at a pharmacy. After briefly moving to Vancouver, then less than a year later to Lebanon, the family finally settled in Toronto when Marie was four years old.^[4] She attended St. Joseph's Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School.^[5]

Education

Henein attended Osgoode Hall Law School, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree.^[5] After graduating, Henein articled under noted criminal defence lawyer Edward Greenspan.^[5] She then attended Columbia Law School, and received her Master of Laws (LLM) degree in 1991.^[6] Henein was called to the bar in 1992.^[6]

Legal career

She was later rehired at Edward Greenspan's firm after working with his partner, Marc Rosenberg.^[5] She eventually was named a partner of the firm in 1998.^[5] In 2002, Henein left to open Henein and Associates.^[6] The firm later was renamed as Henein Hutchison LLP after former crown attorney Scott Hutchison joined the firm as a named partner,^[5] and then again to Henein Hutchison Robitaille when Henein's long-time colleague Danielle Robitaille was promoted to managing partner.^[7]

Henein developed a reputation in Toronto as one of the most "respected and feared criminal lawyers in the country."^[5] The National Post called her the "most high profile criminal defence lawyer in the country."^[4] In 2011, Canadian Lawyer magazine named her one of the "Top 25 Most Influential" saying she was "one of the most sought-after criminal lawyers in the country" and "a key go-to lawyer for high-profile accused in Toronto."^[8]

Starting in the early to late 2010s, Henein began expanding her law firm to include a large civil litigation group, hiring on prominent partners from Bay Street firms such as Torys and Borden Ladner Gervais.^[3] As her firm's focus shifted to include both criminal defence work and civil litigation, Henein herself began to take on more corporate law, professional regulation, and civil litigation cases as part of her legal practice. By March 2025, she estimated that 5% or less of her files were criminal defence matters.^[3]

Notable cases

In 1998, with Greenspan, Henein defended former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan on sexual-misconduct charges. The Supreme Court of Canada denied Regan's appeal, but he was ultimately acquitted of all charges.^[5][9]

In her first case at her own firm, Henein defended Daniel Weiz, who was one of the young men charged in the 1999 death by beating of Toronto teen Dmitri Baranovski. Weiz was acquitted of all charges.^[6]

In 2008, Henein defended hockey agent David Frost, who was acquitted of the charges of sexual exploitation.^[6]

Henein represented Marvin Sazant, a Toronto doctor accused of tying up several young boys and repeatedly forcing sex on them. In 2009, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario revoked Sazant's licence "concluding that in three of the four cases, the allegations had been proved".^[10][11]

In 2009, Henein represented Bradley Harrison at the Supreme Court of Canada. The charges of possession of 35 kilograms of cocaine (worth about $4 million) were dropped.^[6]

Henein represented former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant after he was charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death for dragging a man with his car causing his death after a collision when the cyclist he struck became enraged. On May 25, 2010, all charges against Bryant were withdrawn.^[9][12]

In 2011, Henein's client John Magno received a twelve-year sentence in connection with an arson resulting in a death and one of the largest fires in Toronto's history "forcing the evacuation of 50 nearby homes on Danforth Avenue and requiring the services of more than 170 firefighters."^[13][14]

In November 2014, former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi hired Henein to defend him.^[15][5] He was charged in four cases of sexual assault and one case of choking a woman. The first trial of Ghomeshi began on February 1, 2016.^[16] The trial lasted eight days.^[17] On 24 March 2016, the judge delivered the verdict. Ghomeshi was acquitted of all charges, on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt.^[18][19]

Henein represented Mark Norman during his trial for Breach of Trust, a charge that was eventually stayed on May 9, 2019.

In 2023, Henein represented Indigenous author Dawn Walker who was accused of parental abduction, forgery, and mischief. On November 2, 2023, Walker pleaded guilty to three of the charges against her. She was sentenced to a one-year conditional sentence in the community and 18 months’ probation. She also cannot have unsupervised visits with her son.^[20]

Personal life

Her brother Peter Henein, previously a lawyer with the law firm Waddell Phillips Professional Corporation,^[21] is now a partner at HHR LLP.^[22] She is married to Glen Jennings, a lawyer who heads the white collar defence and investigations group at the law firm Gowlings. They have two sons.^[23]