Charles Russell Speechlys is one of the few law firms able to provide integrated legal services with a specific sector focus on data centres and technology infrastructure, including managed services and cloud services.
Data centres are a strategic asset class, essential to almost everything we do, and require specialist knowledge and skills throughout the whole lifecycle of a business from land acquisition, funding, planning, energy, development, operation, data protection, data location and sovereignty, standards and information security to sale and exit. Our focus on the technology sector translates into an informed legal service that understands the operation of IT infrastructure - the business risks inherent in the hosted environment, and the measures necessary for ensuring continuity of service and security of information. This understanding is critical to informing our commercial advice on outsourcing and cloud-based services such as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
Data centre models are constantly evolving to more flexible occupations models driven by the hyperscale technology giants. We have a strong track record acting for operations who negotiate with enterprise and hyperscale customers. M&A is also a strong feature of the market, and we have been involved in some of the most significant investments and transactions in recent times, supported by expert commercial due diligence teams. We also offer highly specialised environmental, health and safety, facilities management, data protection and information security, employment and tax advice to support core operations. We also have a strong banking practice for lenders and borrowers in the sector.
Our integrated approach builds in industry good practice and dispute avoidance. We cover compliance and risk management including audit and implementation projects, due diligence, cross border data flows, outsourcing, information and technology security. Our deep understanding of the sector helps us advise and facilitate negotiations, using innovative negotiation techniques, including building robust contracts with a strong emphasis on effective corporate governance. If you are developing, letting or fitting out a data centre we have a leading real estate/construction team. From the planning process, future legislative implications around sustainability, to security of tenure, physical access and step-in rights, we have the expertise to guide you through.
Our expertise enables us to provide a stronger technology infrastructure and outsourcing offering, providing strategic advice on the risks in managed services, cloud and technology infrastructure transactions. This enables us to engage more directly with our clients on the technology infrastructure supporting a service or process, where the data is and to ask the right questions about risk.
