Digital Infrastructure

McGrath North’s digital infrastructure group combines deep experience and industry knowledge across jurisdictions to provide developers, service providers, data businesses, artificial intelligence companies, hyperscalers, operators, and investors with the insights and practical solutions needed to deliver complex digital infrastructure projects. The legal challenges facing businesses that rely on digital infrastructure and data centers are multifaceted and evolving rapidly. Our team of attorneys is fully immersed in the sector, having worked extensively with developers, providers, hyperscalers, enterprise end-users, and facility operators on high-profile transactions involving data center leasing, licensing, colocation arrangements, and related development matters.

Types of Matters Handled

A digital infrastructure practice like McGrath North's provides comprehensive legal services across the full lifecycle of data center and related projects. Common types of matters include:

• Site Selection and Real Estate Transactions: Land acquisition, purchase and sale agreements, ground leases, title and survey due diligence, easements, rights-of-way, and site control strategies.
• Development and Construction: Drafting and negotiation of design, engineering, and construction contracts; build-to-suit arrangements; project development structuring; and construction dispute resolution.
• Leasing and Licensing Agreements: Negotiation of data center leases, colocation agreements, master services agreements (MSAs), license arrangements for capacity or space, subleases, and related operational agreements.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Operations: Drafting and negotiation of SLAs, managed services agreements, hosting agreements, fiber connectivity and interconnection agreements, and ongoing operational contracts.
• Power and Energy Procurement: Power purchase agreements (PPAs), utility interconnection agreements, energy infrastructure, and arrangements.
• Entitlements, Zoning, and Permitting: Land use approvals, zoning strategies, environmental permitting, and navigation of local, state, and federal regulatory requirements.
• Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Governance: Compliance with data protection laws, cybersecurity risk management, breach response planning, and integration of privacy considerations into infrastructure agreements.
• Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions: IP licensing, technology transfer agreements, trade secret protection, and commercial contracts involving hardware, software, and cloud-related technologies.
• Environmental and Sustainability Matters: Compliance with environmental regulations, water usage issues, energy efficiency standards, and carbon/emissions considerations.

This combination of real estate, construction, energy, corporate, regulatory, and technology expertise allows the group to deliver integrated, business-oriented counsel tailored to the unique demands of the digital infrastructure sector.