Meet Weinstein’s Toronto lawyers
Duo will represent him in a $14-million sexual-assault lawsuit filed by a local actress
When Monique Jilesen arrived at the downtown courtroom Friday morning, she sat at the front and took the lead — talking shop with the judge, and hammering down dates for future court appearances.
Her colleague Kate Costin took a more discreet role, sitting at the back.
Meet Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers in Toronto.
They’ll be representing him in a $14-million sexual-assault lawsuit filed by an unnamed Toronto actress — and they got straight to work Friday.
When could they meet to discuss the woman’s anonymity?
“I would propose not to deliver a statement of defence until this issue is resolved,” Jilesen said. All parties agreed. When should they return to court? Feb. 9? Yes.
Then, as quickly as they came, they were gone. But who are Jilesen and Costin? And how did they come to represent Hollywood’s tarnished tycoon?
“I really probably can’t speak to you, even about myself,” Jilesen told the Star over the phone Friday. “In any kind of case where a client doesn’t particularly have an interest in media coverage, I don’t engage in it.
“It’s ultimately about the case before the courts.”
Jilesen’s professional history has been well-documented. She’s the more senior representation on the case — a partner at Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP. Jilesen attended Queen’s University, then Osgoode Law.
Her case history has spanned major financial, pharmaceutical, political and technology institutions, from Pfizer to the Canadian government.
She represented former Ontario premier David Peterson in 2002, and has worked on several cross-border
“First and foremost, Monique is a professional. She’s going to do her job regardless of the public perception.” RYAN BREEDON TRIAL LAWYER
disputes before the Weinstein case.
Jilesen and a team of lawyers from her firm are currently working probono to represent Douglas Cardinal, an architect and Anishinaabe elder, in a discrimination case before an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal over the Cleveland Indians’ “Chief Wahoo” logo.
Ryan Breedon, a trial lawyer based in Barrie, worked with Jilesen for several years. Over the years, he said, she’s worked on several civil sexual assault cases.
“First and foremost, Monique is a professional,” he said. “She’s going to do her job regardless of the public perception.”
When Jilesen won the Advocates’ Society’s Douglas K. Laidlaw Medal this year for advocacy, Lenczner Slaght partner Tom Curry lionized her work.
“Her contribution to legal and advocacy training is matched by her commitment to mentorship, equality and the advancement of women and racialized lawyers in the profession,” according to a draft of Curry’s remarks, shared with the Star by Breedon.
Costin is newer to the field. She was in law school at Dalhousie until 2016 and was an articling student at Lenczner Slaght before becoming an associate there in September this year.
Her background before law school gives her a unique position to view the Weinstein case. Costin worked on and off Broadway in costume and prop design, and in the costume departments of NBC, HBO and F/X network.
Last year, Marie Henein of Henein Hutchinson LLP made headlines for representing former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi on sexual-assault charges by three women.
In October, Jilesen took to Twitter with a photograph of Henein delivering remarks at the Advocates’ Society.
“Marie @HeneinHutchinson calls out law firms to take the lead to advance women in the profession . . . who shall heed the call?”
Henein declined on Friday to comment on Jileson and Costin’s task ahead — because, she wrote in an email, her law firm is the one representing Jane Doe.