Assistant Federal Public Defender
Grand Rapids, MI

Assistant Federal Defender Joanna Kloet joined the office in 2017. Joanna completed her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and obtained her law degree from Michigan State University, where she graduated summa cum laude as a King Scholar.

After law school, Joanna was hired through the Attorney General's Honors Program as an Attorney Advisor for the Executive Office for Immigration Review in the Tenth Circuit. From 2009 to 2014, she practiced with the Michigan law firm of Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge, focusing primarily on immigration law and indigent criminal defense. From 2013 to 2017, in her role as Supervising Attorney in the immigration law clinic at Michigan State University College of Law, Joanna supervised law student practitioners representing noncitizens facing removal.

Joanna is licensed to practice in Michigan and Colorado and has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association since 2009. Her recent article, "It's not (Fundamentally) Fair! The Right to Counsel on the Immigration Consequences of Juvenile Misconduct," was published in the Fall 2016 issue of the University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy.