The new rules also restrict the ability of one company to define what e-discovery is reasonable, Bace said.

"The big focus is on e-discovery because some organizations have felt it was used like an offensive litigation record," he said. "They come in and their first order is, 'I want all the e-mails from all your employees for the past 10 years.'"

Even organizations that don't currently need to meet with the new rules are starting to take steps to comply with them. "We know that ultimately it'll come to pass that we'll have to be compliant," said Jory Wolf, CIO for the city of Santa Monica, Calif., which has a population of 93,000.

Wolf said he isn't sure whether he needs to be compliant with the new rules, but he's not taking chances.

"Because we're a public entity, all of our documents except those that are strictly called out as attorney-client are deemed public records," he said. "This means we have to turn over thousands and thousands of e-mails that might be related to the topic because they're an exchange between two people."