Meet Suzanne Côté, who will fill the seat on the Supreme Court that will open up with Sunday’s retirement of Justice Louis LeBel.

Here are five things about our newest top judge:

1. Started Young

She has been quoted as saying she wanted to be a lawyer since around age 11, when she liked to read tabloid accounts of high-profile trials while growing up in eastern Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula. Her mother wanted her to be a teacher.

She bought half of her employer’s law firm while an articling student from Université Laval. It was just a tiny firm in Gaspé but it was an early lesson in management and the law.

2. Veteran of high-stakes cases

She is a partner and head of the Montreal litigation group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Before that, she was section head of the litigation team at Stikeman Elliott LLP in Montreal for nine years.

She defended Imperial Tobacco during a class-action lawsuit in 2012, when she argued that the public has been aware of the dangers of smoking since the 1960s and that the federal government “is directly implicated in all aspects of the industry, from cultivation to production to marketing.”

Côté served as independent counsel in the Canadian Judicial Council inquiry into the Lori Douglas affair. Douglas, then Associate Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba, was embarrassed when her lawyer/ husband admitted posting nude photos of Douglas on a website and trying to lure a client to have sex with her.

Côté also represented the government of Quebec in the 2010 Bastarache Commission inquiry into judicial nomination in the province.

3. Will make nice salary, but not Bieber bucks

Côté stands to make $358,000 plus benefits when she takes the post on Monday.

4. Highly rated

Côté was named as a “2011 Client All-Star” by BTI Consulting, Inc. Very few Canadian lawyers achieve “all-star” status from the American rating firm.

5. Balked at Politics

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Côté has been quoted as saying she was pushed to go into politics while a young lawyer, but declined. She didn’t say who was pushing. She did represent Jean Pelletier, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, after he was fired as Via Rail Chairman.