Adler Pollock & Sheehan is proud to welcome Joelle C. Rocha as Senior Counsel in our Land Use Practice.  Joelle focuses her practice on real estate development, land use and real estate litigation. She represents private developers in residential, commercial, mixed use and solar projects before municipal and state boards and agencies.  Her representations also include property owners and developers in litigation related to site control, breach of contract and litigation against municipalities, including numerous cases of first impression.

She has successfully litigated several class actions against municipalities regarding illegal and excessive impact fees and building permit fees and has recovered litigation costs for her clients. She has argued before the Rhode Island Supreme Court in matters involving challenges to local ordinances, unlawful state and local actions and recovery of attorneys’ fees.

In 2023, Joelle was hired by the Speaker of the House of Rhode Island to work with him and his policy team to draft housing packages resulting in the first major changes to land use law in three decades. She was retained by the Speaker for this same role in 2024 and 2025.

Joelle received her J.D from Roger Williams University School of Law and her B.A., summa cum laude, from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.