As assistant general counsel for Westminster, Mass.-based SimplexGrinnell for the last six years, William H. Mitchell Jr. has seen the company go through two significant changes.

In 2001, SimplexGrinnell was acquired by Tyco International and is now a business unit in one of Tyco’s five major segments: Fire & Security. And in 2002, Tyco’s upper management was restructured and a “Six Sigma” quality improvement methodology was implemented throughout the company.

Mitchell volunteered to become a Six Sigma “black belt” – a two-year, full-time commitment during which he will help implement the quality control program in Tyco’s legal department.

“Because Tyco has gone through wrenching changes over the last three years, it has had to call on all of us, especially the members of the legal team, to assist in that process,” Mitchell says. “It offered me the chance to participate in larger initiatives within the organization that didn’t just affect the law department. I knew that it was supported at the highest level.”

Mitchell recently spoke with Rebecca J. Berfanger of New England In-House about implementing Six Sigma at Tyco.

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New England In-House: What is “Six Sigma”?

Mitchell: Six Sigma is a quality improvement methodology that was developed initially at Motorola for making improvements to business processes. It has been implemented throughout companies initially and primarily in the manufacturing area, but it has been applied successfully in companies from General Electric to DuPont to Sun Microsystems in the transactional area. It has also been implemented in a number of law departments [including] GE, Merrill Lynch and DuPont.

NEIH: Why did Tyco decide to implement Six Sigma?

Mitchell: The current chairman and CEO of Tyco, Edward Breen, was president and chief operating officer of Motorola before he came to Tyco. He was very steeped in the Six Sigma methodology and environment and felt it was important to implement it at Tyco, where it’s being implemented from top to bottom.

NEIH. What have you personally done to implement Six Sigma at Tyco?

Mitchell: Last summer at a global law department meeting for Tyco, it was made clear by the general counsel of Tyco, William B. Lytton, that Six Sigma was going to be implemented in the law department. They were looking for volunteers to learn the methodology and apply it to the processes in our law department, and I volunteered. Since then I’ve received four weeks of intensive training and have begun work on Six Sigma projects.

NEIH: How does your work with Six Sigma affect your other responsibilities in the law department?

Mitchell: My official full-time job is to work on Six Sigma projects, but prior to that I was a business lawyer. Commercial transactions, real estate and licensing were my principal areas. I’m starting to work on projects and attempting to address particular areas where we want to improve our processes. It’s an 18- to 24-month commitment. I’m probably about three months into it now.

NEIH: Why are you called a “black belt”?

Mitchell: The use of the “black belt” and “green belt” came from the founders of the Six Sigma methodology at Motorola, who happened to be martial arts enthusiasts. A “black belt” is a full-time resource, at least for a specified period of time. “Green belts” are part-time resources, who might work on one, two or three projects. A “black belt” would not only work on several projects on his own, but also mentor “green belts” in their projects.

NEIH. What are the steps to implementing Six Sigma methodology?

Mitchell: The principal steps involved go by the acronym DMAIC: define, measure, analyze, improve and control. What’s involved is focusing on the customer’s requirements. For a law department, the customer is an internal person, like a CEO. We determine exactly what the customer needs and analyze where there’s room for improvement. We then try to establish in different areas of the process what factors contribute in a statistically significant way to achievement of that satisfaction.

NEIH: How do you determine what improvements need to be made?

Mitchell: You collect the data and you analyze it in terms of producing the result the customer requires. By actually going through that rigorous methodology, you’re able to focus on those critical factors, which can render the most benefit.

NEIH: How can legal departments benefit from using Six Sigma?

Mitchell: Controlling litigation expenses, document retention plans and costs, insuring prompt review and flow of contracts. Those are a few examples.

NEIH: How large is Tyco’s law department?

Mitchell: There are approximately 150 to 200 lawyers in Tyco worldwide. Most of those are located in the United States, but we probably have 30 or more overseas.

NEIH: What size law department would benefit from this program the most?

Mitchell: I’d say this sort of quality improvement methodology could be a benefit to just about any size organization. However, it does require you to step back from the day-to-day work and take positive steps to improve the process. Many organizations are just too small or too lean to be able to do that in a significant measure. Once you get above about a dozen attorneys, your organization gets complex enough with support staff and document processing and record-keeping where there can be a real benefit from stepping back and analyzing what you can do to improve your system.

However, a lot of Six Sigma programs are assisted in significant measure by outside vendors who help companies set up programs. That’s what’s happening at Tyco. Then in a year or two most companies internalize the process either by hiring or developing their own experts in-house to keep things going. But the important thing is there has to be commitment to improvement from the top level of the organization down. Without that commitment from upper management, the fix that you put in place will not stick.

NEIH: Why are you committed to the program?

Mitchell: Because our CEO is a true believer in Six Sigma, there’s no question of the company’s commitment. That was one of the appealing things to me. It offered me, as a lawyer, the chance to participate in larger initiatives within the organization that didn’t just affect the law department. I knew that it was supported at the highest level.

NEIH: Three years after you joined SimplexGrinnell’s law department, the company was acquired by Tyco. Three years have passed since the acquisition and you’re still there. Is it typical for in-house counsel to stay on after an M&A?

Mitchell: I think it’s very unusual. The legal counsel from an acquired company is usually only retained because they have some sort of special expertise or some function that the existing legal counsel of the acquiring company just can’t cover.

NEIH: What other changes have you and the law department been involved in since the acquisition?

Mitchell: When Simplex was acquired, it was a very different Tyco. Until the recent complete change of upper management, there wasn’t a lot of process in place. The current management has changed its focus from being a holding company management to being an operating company management. That requires very clear visibility, proper process, transparency and all kinds of things that we had to put in place at Tyco. Because Tyco has gone through wrenching changes over the last three years, it has had to call on all of us, especially the members of the legal team, to assist in that process.

(A version of this article originally appeared in the Feb. 23, 2004 issue of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, a sister publication of New England In-House.)

Questions or comments may be directed to the writer at [email protected].