The battle line of e-discovery continues to march towards the left side of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model. Today's enterprises are struggling to gird themselves against the unrelenting explosions of electronic data by implementing products to manage electronically stored information before a lawsuit is even considered or filed. Vendors are scampering to offer products and services to fill the void.

Unfortunately for lawyers, the left side of the EDRM involves a legion of new concepts and renegade acronyms such as ECM, RIM, ILM, BPM, WORM, KM, and ERM. And it requires that lawyers have a respectable understanding of the information systems involved in litigation. In addition to forming substantive legal arguments, litigators are now required to understand how their clients technically control and manage the electronic data they create, store, archive, and regurgitate. The ultimate goal is to competently locate relevant evidence without bleeding copious amounts of client revenue.