E-discovery is a big part of litigation—due to both the sheer document volume as well as the difficulty of ensuring only the right documents get produced. Yet under court rules, litigants must be able to demonstrate to the judge that their methodology for storing, categorizing, retrieving, producing, and destroying documents is "defensible." They must be able to prove that it is sound and trustworthy.

This concept of "defensibility" is useful beyond the realm of e-discovery, though. Corporate legal departments (CLDs) are sitting on large stashes of raw data that could be put to use internally—for everything from choosing an outside law firm to estimating settlement amounts.

Failing to use this data to make predictions will soon no longer be defensible in the eyes of those who expect CLDs to run like businesses. Estimations based on "gut" or "experience" will be increasingly viewed as lackadaisical, methodologically unsound, and untrustworthy. Law departments who continue to rely on gut instinct alone will be viewed by their colleagues as out of touch.