Kyle Roche

Kyle Roche (born October 30, 1987) is an American attorney and real estate developer from Amherst, New York. He co-owns the real estate development company Roche Development, which handles properties within the Allentown Historic District of Buffalo, New York.

In October 2022, Roche resigned from the Roche Freedman law firm, which he originally co-founded, following targeted lawsuits that garnered controversial reception. The firm was later rebranded to Freedman Normand Friedland, and Roche rejoined the firm in July 2024.

Early life and education Kyle Roche grew up in Amherst, New York, son of Kari (née Meyers) and William Roche. His paternal grandfather was Commodore of the Buffalo Yacht Club. He is the oldest of four siblings, who all attended parochial school at Saints Peter & Paul Church in Williamsville, New York. Roche graduated from Canisius High School, where he was accepted after a personal recommendation by National Fuel chief executive officer Bernard Kennedy. The Evans Scholars Foundation awarded Roche a college scholarship in recognition of his work caddying at the Country Club of Buffalo.

Roche attended Purdue University and earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, later earning his Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Roche and McGinnis also co-authored a July 2017 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, where they argued the strength of Bitcoin against fiat currency.

Career

Law While an associate at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Roche began representing the estate of Dave Kleiman in its lawsuit against Craig Steven Wright. Roche and co-worker Devin Freedman hoped to verify Wright's claim through discovery, and they left to start their own law firm in August 2019. Emin Gün Sirer commissioned Roche to work for him in September 2019, paying Roche in cryptocurrency from his startup platform Avalanche, along with an equity stake in the company. Jason Cyrulnik sued Roche and Freedman in March 2021 after being fired from the firm, claiming he was owed $60 million of their Avalanche shares. As part of the discovery process, Roche and Freedman's shares in Avalanche were publicly disclosed. Roche Freedman won a $100 million judgement for the estate of Dave Kleiman in December 2021. Roche unveiled Ryval in January 2022, his crowdfunding platform for legal financing. He spoke at the OffshoreAlert conference in April 2022, participating in panel discussions on the topics of legal financing, Nexo, and Tether.

Footage of a January 2022 meeting between Roche and Christen Ager-Hanssen was published by Crypto Leaks in August 2022, featuring Roche admitting that he had targeted rivals of Avalanche with lawsuits. The London, England meeting and its recording were later revealed to have been orchestrated by Dfinity. Ager-Hanssen had misrepresented himself to Roche as a potential investor in Ryval.

Roche and Kelvin Goode co-founded ClaimsHero in January 2023, an online platform used to recruit plaintiffs for class action lawsuits against companies such as TikTok. He won a $12.5 million judgment against Cantor Fitzgerald in April 2023 on behalf of their former partners, but it was later overturned in Delaware Supreme Court. Freedman Normand Friedland was removed from its lawsuit against Dfinity in May 2023, with judge James Donato rejecting the firm's claim that Dfinity had doctored their leaked video of Roche. Roche also won his father William Roche a $10 million judgment against PSE Archery in May 2025, after one of their compound bows malfunctioned and left him blind in one eye. Its portfolio comprises significant properties within the Allentown Historic District of Buffalo, New York. This includes a stretch of Allen Street previously occupied by Mulligan's Brick Bar and The Old Pink, where the company plans on constructing a mixed-use building. It was built in 1880, and had its original façade restored during a 2013 renovation. The storefront is currently leased by Dalfonso's Italian Imports. The Old Pink was destroyed by arson in June 2024, and Mulligan's Brick Bar was destroyed by a separate fire in January 2025.

The company holds venture capital investments in Cerebras, Gopuff, and Palantir Technologies.

Philanthropy

He is a philanthropist and has served on the board of directors for Roswell Park Alliance Foundation since September 2025.

Roche funded the September 2025 opening of a Montessori program within the parochial school of his alma mater Saints Peter & Paul Church in Williamsville, New York. Marcotte is the founder of jigsaw puzzle company Jiggy, which famously won funding from Mark Cuban during her appearance on the 12th season of Shark Tank. The couple have two children and reside in Miami Beach, Florida. It was built in 1927 for pharmaceutical mogul Orin Foster, and designed by Harlow C. Curtiss Building architect Paul F. Mann. The real estate transaction was the highest ever recorded in Buffalo’s history, and the couple use the mansion as a summer home.

His sister Serena Roche is a student at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she is editor-in-chief of the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice. Their twin brothers Kory Roche and Kreig Roche are both intellectually disabled.