About the Practice
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, IoT, and data-driven technologies is transforming the global economy and placing unprecedented demands on digital infrastructure. To address these challenges, companies are racing to develop data centers, expand fiber networks, and secure reliable sources of energy.
This evolving landscape presents complex legal, regulatory, and community concerns involving land use, energy, construction, data privacy, and transactions. Successfully navigating these challenges requires more than legal depth, it demands practical industry knowledge, proactive stakeholder engagement, and a strategic approach to regulatory risk.
Smith Gambrell & Russell’s industry experience provides clients with practical insight to help them develop, acquire, and operate digital infrastructure with confidence. Our multidisciplinary team provides guidance across the full project lifecycle, from site selection and entitlements to financing, operations, and compliance, helping clients secure necessary approvals, build community trust and mitigate regulatory risk, accelerate development timelines, and achieve and protect long-term asset value.
Our Capabilities
SGR represents developers, operators, investors, utilities, and technology companies across the digital infrastructure ecosystem, from emerging companies to global enterprises, helping clients achieve maximum scalable developments.
We provide support across:
- Site selection, land use, zoning, and entitlements
- Social license strategy, community engagement, and community benefits agreements
- Data center development, leasing, and operations
- Fiber and conduit network infrastructure development and expansion, public and private entitlements, licensing, and permitting
- Energy procurement and project development, PPAs, microgrids and energy storage
- Government incentives, tax abatements, and development agreements
- Construction and project delivery, project management and dispute avoidance
- Cybersecurity and data privacy compliance and risk management
- Corporate structuring, M&A, and financing to scale and optimize portfolios
Our differentiators:
- Integrated, cross-disciplinary team across key practice areas
- Decades of hands-on experience in data center entitlements, incentives, fiber network development, and large-scale infrastructure approvals
- A portfolio that includes precedent-setting projects from the earliest carrier hotel and colocation facilities to complex dark fiber networks
- National reach with efficient multi-jurisdictional coordination
- Proactive community engagement and social license frameworks that builds trust and addresses opposition before it escalates
Our Approach
We act as strategic partners, not just legal advisors, but an extension of your development and investment teams, combining legal guidance with operational and commercial understanding of how digital infrastructure projects actually get built. Because of this, our approach emphasizes:
- Proactive planning to anticipate risks and opportunities
- Efficiency and speed to meet development timelines
- Collaboration with internal teams and technical advisors
- Long-term partnership across projects and growth phases
Our Credentials
Our digital infrastructure team includes attorneys across multiple legal disciplines, such as land use and zoning, real estate, energy, construction, corporate, and data privacy, many of whom have technical and industry backgrounds.
For each project we assist with, we bring:
- Direct experience on precedent-setting digital infrastructure projects including early colocation data center facilities and pioneering dark fiber conduit agreements
- Leadership in energy and regulatory matters
- Significant deal, financing, and development experience
- Deep expertise in complex entitlement and infrastructure approvals
- Active thought leadership and industry involvement
