Competition among US law firms for attorneys with data center expertise is heating up. The top 200 US firms are on pace to hire nearly 300 data center lawyers this year, up 21% from the year before and triple the rate in 2020, according to an analysis of public data by the legal business intelligence firm Pirical, first shared with Semafor. Kirkland & Ellis and Dentons have the biggest teams, each with more than 200 lawyers in this area.
As we reported recently, the AI explosion has transformed law firms’ energy-related dealmaking desks from a relative backwater to the busiest and most lucrative corner of the office. “The hiring has also moved south,” Pirical analyst Craig Savitzky said. “Houston has matched Washington DC so far this year, which makes sense now that power availability decides whether a project gets built at all.”
