Michael C. Herrera
- Firmwide Co-Chair, Data Centers & Digital Infrastructure
- San Diego
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Clients trust Michael for their most challenging technology and licensing deals, valuing his ability to simplify complexity and deliver strategic, actionable advice.
Michael Herrera advises clients in structuring and negotiating sophisticated technology transactions, strategic development and sourcing, and intellectual property (IP) licensing agreements. Michael’s practice bridges cutting-edge technologies across sectors such as data centers and digital infrastructure, semiconductors, quantum computing, space and satellite applications, advanced materials, life sciences and biotechnology (including biologics, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices), chemical sciences, advanced robotics, AI, and emerging technologies. He helps clients navigate their most complex and highly technical commercial agreements involving novel technologies or exceptional business arrangements that demand creative structuring and sophisticated risk assessment.
Michael co-leads the firmwide Data Centers and Digital Infrastructure team, coordinating a multidisciplinary practice of more than 100 lawyers nationwide who support clients throughout the entire digital infrastructure spectrum. He represents major technology companies, hyperscalers, high-growth startups, and strategic investment entities, providing counsel on procurement deals, long-term supply arrangements, complex patent licenses, joint ventures, innovative collaborations, nonrecurring engineering, contract manufacturing, distribution deals, and bespoke arrangements critical to launching next-gen technologies. He also advises on the IP aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions.
Michael partners closely with clients to transform innovative ideas into successful real-world commercial arrangements. His experience includes crafting scalable procurement and licensing frameworks, guiding clients on strategic digital infrastructure procurement deals, and supporting hyperscale clients in procurement agreements totaling hundreds of billions in annual spend for hardware and services, including GPU, CPU, and next-gen AI hardware. Michael also regularly advises on foundational patent licensing transactions and complex commercial arrangements in life sciences and advanced materials sectors and has structured pivotal multibillion-dollar joint ventures and “bet-the-company” type strategic alliances, including significant and groundbreaking collaborations in quantum computing, AI development, life sciences, and advanced materials.
Previously, Michael completed in-house secondments at Waymo, Microsoft, and Amazon, where he provided practical, business-focused advice to accelerate bringing innovative technologies to market. Committed to fostering diversity, inclusion, and opportunity, Michael frequently speaks on these topics and mentors the next generation of diverse legal leaders. Before practicing law, Michael was a reconnaissance officer in the Army National Guard, where he built the leadership skills now central to his practice.
Areas of focus
Industries
Services
Education & Credentials
Education
- Duke University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, Staff Editor, Duke Law Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems
- Johns Hopkins University, B.A., Political Science, cum laude
Bar and Court Admissions
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California
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District of Columbia
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North Carolina
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Texas
Professional Recognition
Listed in Super Lawyers Magazine as a "San Diego Rising Star,” 2025
Impact
Professional Leadership
- Cleantech San Diego, Board Member
Professional Experience
Representative experience includes:
- Represented large technology company client in its groundbreaking joint development and collaboration agreement with a large AI developer that allowed the client to launch its core AI-capable services and benefit form a time-to-market advantage in enterprise AI offerings.
- Represents multiple hyperscaler clients, advising and negotiating more than $200 billion in annual spend for data center hardware, equipment, and services procurement.
- Advised global data center hyperscalers, including in the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, and Brazil, on developing global procurement agreement frameworks and governance policies.
- Negotiated agreements to secure a $100 billion server GPU procurement contract over five years on behalf of a major hyperscaler.
- Structured and negotiated a large-scale outsourced facilities management arrangement with a major service provider for the operation of more than 100 data center facilities in 20-plus countries.
- Structured long-term supply and manufacturing agreements for server hardware, racks, and integrated rack systems and other physical infrastructure components with global original design manufacturer (ODM) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners.
- Facilitated advanced procurement arrangements for critical infrastructure, including power management systems, cooling solutions, generators, transformers, and power distribution units (PDUs), with tier-one manufacturers.
- Structured procurement agreements for ongoing data center operations, including preventative and corrective maintenance, fuel delivery, water treatment, facilities services, and other mission-critical services.
- Supported clients in semiconductor procurement and licensing from major foundries, design houses, test and packaging houses, EDA vendors, and system integrators to secure IP, manufacturing capacity, and priority access for custom silicon development.
- Negotiated and drafted patent and IP license agreements for hard and soft silicon IP, as well as agreements covering foundry, design, packaging, testing, and other services.
- Advised on patent and IP issues arising from supply agreements for custom silicon.
- Advised clients on innovative technologies, including AI accelerators, quantum computing, advanced storage solutions, and edge computing infrastructure.
- Advised startup focusing on in vivo CAR-T cell engineering on securing foundational inbound patent license agreements from academic universities and the NIH that were instrumental in their eventual exit for $2.1 billion.
- Advised large lime and limestone producer on complex joint venture arrangement and related agreements to establish a next-gen plant to produce reduced carbon materials.
Insights
