Data Centers
Clients face speed‑to‑market pressure, complex MEP integration, and tightening energy and sustainability constraints, creating heightened exposure to delay, defects, outages, and high‑value disputes.
Data centers are among the most capital‑intensive and technically complex assets being delivered today. Driven by cloud adoption, AI, hyperscale growth, and digital transformation, the pace of development has accelerated rapidly across all major markets. At the same time, pressure to bring facilities online quickly, manage energy and sustainability targets, and coordinate intricate mechanical and electrical systems has significantly increased delivery and commercial risk.
HKA supports data center owners, developers, operators, contractors, insurers, and legal teams at every stage of the asset lifecycle. We help manage risk, avoid disputes where possible, and provide independent expert evidence when matters become contentious and require clear analysis of technical causation, schedule impact, and financial loss.
Why HKA for your data center needs?
HKA brings together technical, commercial, and forensic expertise to support counsel and clients when matters are complex, high‑value, or contentious. We provide independent analysis and expert testimony that is rigorous, transparent, and fit for proceedings, integrating technical causation, delay analysis, quantum, and forensic accounting and economic damages into a coherent and comprehensive expert narrative.
Our teams have advised on data center projects across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, including hyperscale campuses, colocation facilities, brownfield upgrades, and operational assets. We combine sector knowledge with a deep bench of specialists, including specialists with both industry and dispute-resolution experience, and experts experienced in arbitration and litigation proceedings. HKA is recognised by Lexology Index as number one in both Construction and Arbitration, and is ranked number three in the Global Arbitration Review (GAR) 100 Expert Witness Power Index (2025 and 2026 editions).
Our experience in data centers
HKA have supported 49 clients, across 11 countries, on more than 60 projects. Our data center services include:
- Project advisory and risk mitigation
We help clients identify and manage risk early through program reviews, integrated scheduling, contract strategy, change management, and claims avoidance, supporting better outcomes before positions harden. - Expert witness and dispute support
We act as testifying and consulting experts in settlement discussions, mediation, arbitration, litigation, and adjudication, providing opinions on delay, disruption, damages, technical causation, and professional liability related to data center projects and operations. - Delay, disruption, and quantum analysis
Our specialists analyze critical path delay, acceleration, productivity loss, and related cost overruns and damages using robust, evidence‑based methodologies suited to fast‑track, technically complex environments. - Forensic accounting and economic damages
We support counsel with independent analysis to quantify loss and damages, including wasted costs, lost profits, business interruption and extra expense, mitigation costs, and diminution in value. Our teams provide robust financial models and provide expert testimony, presenting evidence in arbitration or litigation settings. - Forensic technical services
We investigate failures involving electrical, mechanical, power, and cooling systems, commissioning defects, asset damage, and performance shortfalls, delivering clear root‑cause analysis that is robust and fit for proceedings. - Insurance and business interruption
HKA assists insurers and policyholders with technical and damages assessments following outages, fires, equipment failures, and cyber incidents, helping to quantify loss and support informed resolution. - Sustainability and environmental performance
We advise on carbon, energy, and water performance, environmental permitting and compliance, and disputes linked to sustainability commitments and performance guarantees.
How we can help you
Law firms and in‑house legal teams retain HKA to provide independent expert support on high‑value data center disputes. We also work directly for owners, operators, contractors, and insurers, often alongside external counsel, bringing multidisciplinary capability across technical engineering, delay and quantum, commercial and contractual issues, and forensic accounting and economic damages.
- Shape strategy early: rapid case assessment, theory of causation, and document and records focus.
- Build a defensible expert narrative: integrated technical causation, delay and disruption, quantum, and damages.
- Support you through proceedings: including informal settlement discussions, mediation, or, if unable to resolve, provide clear reports and testimony across adjudication, arbitration, and litigation.
From early case assessment through contemporaneous claims assembly or review, and on to mediation, adjudication, arbitration, and litigation, HKA provides clear, defensible analysis of causation, entitlement, delay and disruption, quantum, and damages. We quantify impact and support expert evidence so you can build or rebut claims with confidence and progress resolution efficiently.
Understanding data center risk
From site selection and grid interconnection through construction, commissioning, and operation, data centers face a unique combination of technical, commercial, and legal challenges.
Common issues include:
- Schedule pressure driven by speed‑to‑market and revenue imperatives
- Delay and disruption arising from long‑lead equipment, procurement strategies, labor availability, trade stacking, and other impacts
- Design development challenges, particularly where tenant requirements change after construction has commenced
- MEP system failures affecting power, cooling, redundancy, and resilience
- Commissioning, handover, and integration issues between construction and specialist installations
- Energy availability, grid interconnection, and regulatory constraints
- Sustainability, carbon, and water performance disputes, including greenwashing allegations
- Outages, cyber incidents, and physical security failures that can rapidly escalate into business interruption, insurance, and contractual claims
- Increased reliance on behind‑the‑meter generation creates standard‑of‑care and due‑diligence risk when systems traditionally built by power producers are executed under construction‐driven delivery models.
- Commissioning risk is rising as generation, UPS, controls, and protection systems are integrated without consistent access to specialized testing equipment and experienced power‑sector manpower.
- Microgrid configurations, especially islanding and resynchronization with the grid, can introduce instability or equipment damage if protection and controls are not rigorously designed and validated.
- Long lead times for major equipment like transformers and generators create schedule and financial exposure that can determine whether a project proceeds or stalls.
- Performance shortfalls after commissioning often lead to disputes over whether issues stem from design, construction, testing scope, or operational guidelines.
- Regulatory requirements for grid interconnection are changing rapidly across jurisdictions, creating uncertainty and delay risk that can materially impact project timelines.
- Mandates requiring capacity matching with renewables are pushing developers toward complex front‑of‑the‑meter strategies with added execution and market risk.
In many cases, a technical issue does not remain isolated. It quickly becomes a commercial dispute requiring independent expert analysis across schedule, engineering, and damages.
