As of Dec. 1, 2015 , changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) are going into effect that not only change how e-discovery in federal litigation will be conducted, but also should be seen as potentially having an important bearing on corporate information governance policies.

Most of the buzz in e-discovery circles in the run-up to finalizing these amendments has been about Rule 37(e), providing a national standard for how courts should approach the failure by a party to preserve electronically stored information (ESI), and about Rule 26, expressly incorporating the notion of “proportionality.”

Here, in the first of a two-part column, are some observations about the potential IG impacts of Rule 37(e), with remarks on Rule 26 following next month.