Data Center Boom Presents New Challenges for In-House Counsel

Artificial intelligence computing needs and national security risks have made data center deals key priorities for in-house counsel, said panelists Tuesday at the Association of Corporate Counsel’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.

A widespread outage that hit Amazon Web Services this week and disrupted the operations of several major companies demonstrates how data centers create issues of risk.

“Data centers have become the digital backbone of our economy,” said Todd Blair, an assistant general counsel at CoreSite, a Denver-based data center subsidiary of American Tower Corp.

Dawn Haghighi, general counsel at real estate appraisal company PCV Murcor Real Estate, ...