The rapid growth of the data center industry is fueling demand for attorneys with experience in data center development and digital infrastructure. Haynes Boone Partner Jeff Moerdler spoke with Law360 about the continued expansion of the data center market in Texas, noting the state’s available land and power, lower costs and less bureaucracy as factors driving development.
Read an excerpt below.
"I think in the next three to four years Texas will surpass Virginia as the largest data center market in the world," Haynes Boone partner Jeffrey Moerdler said. "There's so much more development going on there now, more land available, it's less expensive, there is more power available, and less bureaucracy to get power."
"Whole World Changed"
As Moerdler sees it, two events led to the explosion in data center work.
The first was a 2022 announcement from Dominion Energy in Virginia that it could not keep up with demand to power data centers in Virginia, Moerdler said. The second occurred that year when OpenAI released ChatGPT 3.5, he said.
"Those events caused an explosion in the AI world that has led to demand for much more data center space and capacity," Moerdler said. "The whole world changed in the data center industry as a result of those events, and before that, the growth of the cloud."
Moerdler joined Haynes Boone in December with fellow partner Stephen Friedberg from Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC to lead the firm's data center and digital infrastructure practice. Moerdler said he and Friedberg have been doing data center work since 1990, when the infrastructure was referred to as a "carrier hotel."
Moerdler estimates that nearly 100% of his practice is now devoted to data center work. He said he chose Haynes Boone because of its "depth in power" and its deep Texas roots.
Moerdler said he relies on expertise from a number of the firm's other practice areas and noted the "interdisciplinary" nature of the legal work data centers create.
"We pulled a bunch of other people from real estate who are now devoting a majority of their time to data centers: one senior partner, one younger partner and one senior associate," Moerdler said. "We're doing a lot of work with the project finance infrastructure team. So we're looking, as I'm sure all these other firms are looking, at multiple levels to grow the practice. We're looking for people with substantial experience — which is a very small group — people with some experience, people with just a little experience and people we will train."
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