Joey Marie Went grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Dunbar High School. She received her undergraduate degree in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University. She attended Cornell Law school, concentrating on international corporate law. While at Cornell, Joey was an editor of both the International Law Journal and the Legal Information Institute online journal. She also attended the Cornell Law School and Université de Paris I Program in International and Comparative Law at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. After law school, Joey was admitted to the Illinois bar and joined Kirkland and Ellis as an associate, specializing in asset-backed securitization, mergers and acquisitions, and public and private securities offerings. Following her departure from Kirkland, she worked for Reed Smith on mortgage insurance litigation resulting from the housing market crash. Joey was also an Illinois guardian ad litem, investigating contested child guardianship cases. Joey is excited to have returned to the Bluegrass State and the law after several years off following the birth of triplets.