Strategies helps businesses and individuals solve the complexities of dealing with the government at every level. Our team of specialists concentrate exclusively on government affairs, representing clients nationwide who need assistance with public policy, advocacy, and government relations strategies.
Troutman Pepper Locke’s program for Startup and Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Development
This unique program provides innovative and affordable opportunities to startups and early-stage emerging companies with a solid technology or scientific foundation. We help companies that have a quality management team in place and do not have other significant legal representation.
Market leading eDiscovery and data management services.
eMerge’s lawyers and technologists work together to deliver strategic end-to-end eDiscovery and data management solutions for litigation, investigations, due diligence, and compliance matters. We help clients discover the information necessary to resolve disputes, respond to investigations, conduct due diligence, and comply with legal requirements.
Data center clients face a convergence of pressures — surging AI demand, constrained interconnection queues, evolving regulatory requirements, and intense competition for sites and power. At the center of that convergence sit two disciplines where Troutman Pepper Locke has been nationally ranked for more than a decade: a real estate practice holding Tier 1 Best Law Firms® recognition since 2013, and an energy industry group named several times as #1 in the country and consistently ranked by Chambers and Legal 500 across transactional, regulatory, and litigation capabilities. That pairing anchors our data center practice and shapes how we staff every matter, giving clients a single team that can move a project from site control to power procurement without handing work off.
Our dedicated data center team also draws on attorneys across corporate, finance, environmental, tax, and regulatory practices. As data center lawyers, we represent multinational technology companies, global data center developers and operators, renewable and conventional energy generators, infrastructure funds, and utility providers — seamless, coordinated counsel from site selection through disposition. With 120+ years of client service and a national presence, we deliver the depth and speed our clients need to compete in one of the fastest-moving markets in the world.
Powering the Future — Large Loads, AI, and Emerging Technology
AI workloads are on track to account for half of total data center demand — requiring power densities up to 10 times those of traditional server deployments — in just a few years, and in 2030, data centers are projected to require $6.7 trillion in global investment, with $2.7 trillion of that in the U.S. alone. These dynamics have elevated energy procurement, interconnection strategy, and regulatory engagement from back-office functions into front-line competitive differentiators.
Regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), and state commissions are actively reshaping the rules around large-load interconnection, cost allocation, and energy procurement — and the pace of change shows no sign of slowing. Our clients benefit from a team with deep roots in these proceedings, capable of anticipating regulatory shifts and structuring transactions that remain sound as the landscape evolves.
Our Capabilities
As data center real estate attorneys and site selection counsel, we advise on real estate acquisition, development finance, power and carrier infrastructure, and the evaluation of both established data center hubs (including Northern Virginia and Chicago) and emerging tier-2 markets — helping clients identify the right location for their specific power, latency, and cost requirements. That work regularly includes data center land use and zoning approval matters — entitlements, variances, and special or conditional use permits — alongside data center environmental permitting for air, water, and stormwater review, since local approval has become one of the least predictable parts of the development timeline. We also negotiate data center sale-leaseback and build-to-suit structures once a hyperscale tenant is identified.
As data center construction attorneys, we approach development as the sophisticated engineering project it is — addressing design, construction, equipment procurement, asset financing, and the establishment of power and carrier systems. Our team drafts tailored provisions that give developers control over costs, timelines, and quality. We also advise on the procurement and contractual frameworks for advanced cooling technologies, including liquid cooling, immersion cooling, and direct-to-chip systems, which are increasingly essential for high-density AI and hyperscale workloads.
Our attorneys structure hybrid lease and service agreements that align traditional real estate principles with the unique operational needs of data centers. We craft agreements that define service levels, limit liabilities, establish rent review mechanisms, and ensure clear demarcation of responsibilities.
As data center power purchase agreement lawyers, we advise on the full range of power contracts and generation structures data center clients rely on — behind-the-meter solutions, gas-fired generation, and physical and virtual power purchase agreements — for corporate offtakers including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, General Mills, General Motors, Meta, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Procter & Gamble, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Walmart. As data center interconnection attorneys, we advise on large-load interconnection and grid cost allocation as the rules governing them evolve at FERC and across the RTOs and ISOs — including RTO/ISO data center tariff design and cost-recovery proceedings — as well as co-located data center arrangements sited at or near generation to bypass interconnection queues. We also advise on state and federal energy regulatory compliance more broadly, and on renewable energy agreements and the sustainability claims and greenwashing risk that come with them.
Our energy tax attorneys advise on data center tax incentives, including the ITC, PTC, bonus depreciation, and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) adder benefits, and are at the forefront of the tax credit transfer market — in evaluating credit eligibility, structuring transactions to maximize value, and navigating the tax insurance market from both sides. We also help clients secure state and local incentives and property tax abatements. On the investment side, we advise data center private equity sponsors, infrastructure funds, and strategic investors on joint ventures, M&A, public offerings, and corporate governance matters across the deal life cycle.
During the operational phase, we support power supply, connectivity, facilities management, and regulatory compliance, including wholesale leasing, service level agreements, and dispute resolution. Our team includes top data privacy and cybersecurity attorneys who handle sensitive security issues to help protect valuable IP and information assets. When it’s time to exit, we guide clients through strategic disposal — managing contract transfers and data protection compliance with a focus on maximizing asset value and ensuring a seamless transition.
A data center attorney coordinates legal work across a project’s real estate acquisition, power procurement, construction contracting, environmental and land use permitting, and tax structuring. Because no single discipline covers a data center project end to end, Troutman Pepper Locke built its data center practice around two top-ranked practice and industry-focused groups — real estate and energy — plus practices with deep corporate, finance, environmental, tax, land use, private equity, regulatory, and litigation capabilities.
Site control and power access are now negotiated on parallel tracks, and a delay on either side can stall a project regardless of progress on the other. Troutman Pepper Locke’s energy practice holds a Chambers USA Band 1 ranking in Energy: Electricity (Regulatory & Litigation) — pairing that regulatory depth with nationally ranked real estate counsel (Best Law Firms® and Legal 500) handling site acquisition and entitlements is what lets both workstreams move together as hyperscale data center legal counsel rather than as separate engagements.
A large-load interconnection is the process by which a data center connects to the transmission grid, and it has become the primary bottleneck for new development in most U.S. markets as FERC and the RTOs and ISOs actively rewrite the tariffs governing it. Troutman Pepper Locke’s data center interconnection attorneys draw on the same Chambers USA Band 1-ranked electricity regulatory practice that represents clients directly before FERC on these proceedings.
A co-located data center sits at or near a generation source rather than drawing power solely from the transmission grid, often to bypass interconnection queues entirely. Co-located data center legal work draws on Troutman Pepper Locke’s energy regulatory lawyers alongside the firm’s real estate and power procurement attorneys, since these arrangements raise interconnection, tariff, and resource-adequacy questions that cut across all three.
Site selection involves title and survey review, utility easements, and negotiation of ground leases or purchase agreements, often across multiple candidate sites and jurisdictions at once. Troutman Pepper Locke land use practice — recognized nationally by Best Law Firms®, Tier 1 in Land Use and Zoning Law — helps clients secure zoning approvals, variances, and special or conditional use permits, working alongside the firm’s environmental attorneys on air, water, and stormwater review, with sale-leaseback and build-to-suit structures common once a hyperscale tenant is identified.
Many states offer sales and use tax exemptions on servers and related equipment, as well as property tax abatements, in exchange for job creation or capital investment commitments, and federal tax credits such as the ITC and PTC can apply to on-site generation and storage components. Troutman Pepper Locke’s data center tax incentives work draws on a tax practice holding a Tier 1 national ranking in Tax Law from Best Law Firms®, extending into the tax credit transfer market to structure the sale and purchase of eligible credits.
Troutman Pepper Locke represents private equity sponsors, infrastructure funds, and strategic investors across data center acquisitions, joint ventures, and platform recapitalizations. The firm’s private equity industry group is recognized by Chambers USA and Legal 500 across middle-market corporate, M&A, and buyout matters — credentials it brings alongside its real estate and energy teams to diligence power availability and interconnection status on every deal.
Troutman Pepper Locke’s data center work draws on practice groups independently ranked by Chambers and Legal 500 — including a Chambers USA Band 1 ranking in Energy: Electricity (Regulatory & Litigation), a Tier 1 national ranking in Real Estate Law from Best Law Firms® since 2013, and a 2026 Chambers USA shortlist nod for Energy, Infrastructure & Projects Law Firm of the Year — reflecting the cross-practice nature of the work itself.
Strategies helps businesses and individuals solve the complexities of dealing with the government at every level. Our team of specialists concentrate exclusively on government affairs, representing clients nationwide who need assistance with public policy, advocacy, and government relations strategies.
Troutman Pepper Locke’s program for Startup and Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Development
This unique program provides innovative and affordable opportunities to startups and early-stage emerging companies with a solid technology or scientific foundation. We help companies that have a quality management team in place and do not have other significant legal representation.
Market leading eDiscovery and data management services.
eMerge’s lawyers and technologists work together to deliver strategic end-to-end eDiscovery and data management solutions for litigation, investigations, due diligence, and compliance matters. We help clients discover the information necessary to resolve disputes, respond to investigations, conduct due diligence, and comply with legal requirements.
