The Millionaire Former ‘Ambulance Chaser’

Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editor

Lawyer Jeff Winn is a business success story who is now one of northern England’s richest men – with a tale about building a law firm that carries some key lessons for others.

There persists a certain myth that Winn Group is little more than a modest operation tucked above a chip shop in Byker, but as the former legal aid lawyer points out, the numbers the firm generates are hard to ignore.

The numbers are difficult to ignore. Turnover and profit have been doubling with a regularity that would make a Swiss watchmaker envious. As The Times wrote last year, his business is worth around £350 million.

Staff numbers have ballooned, with new recruits coming on board, reminiscent of a Silicon Valley onboarding, albeit with rather more Geordie accents.

Winn Group is now not just a major private sector employer in the North East; by income, it would sit comfortably among the UK’s top 30 law firms.

Jeff Winn, a larger-than-life character who has just decided to step down as executive chairman of the group, but remaining a major shareholder. He is pictured (below, right with new CEOs Chris Birkett and Marta Fernandez Varona).

Do Lawyers REALLY Like This?

Yet, despite this meteoric rise, a whiff of condescension lingers in certain quarters of the legal profession.

The business model—mass claims processing, with only around 60 solicitors among a workforce of 630—has its detractors. Some mutter about quality and service, as if scale and standards were mutually exclusive.

The evidence, however, suggests otherwise: a 4.8 Trustpilot rating, and 32 graduates currently on training contracts or pursuing the SQE. It is little wonder that Newcastle’s more traditional commercial firms are keen to recruit from Winn’s ranks; the grounding is evidently robust.

What is perhaps most remarkable is that Winn Group’s ascent has occurred during a period when many in the claims sector have been quietly exiting stage left, buffeted by government reforms and the aftershocks of Covid-19.

Winn attributes the group’s resilience to a nimble senior management team—four people, decisions made and implemented within a week—and a private equity partnership with international companies JZ International and Souter Investment Group which, after some initial teething problems (including the loss of a £4m account), has learned to trust management’s instincts. Targets are set, and, almost unfailingly, exceeded.

Technology, too, has played its part. Scale has enabled investment in IT, streamlining processes and boosting efficiency.

But the group’s real differentiator lies in its breadth: it covers the entire accident management spectrum, from credit hire and repairs to personal injury. The latter, once the sector’s golden goose, is now, post-whiplash reforms, more of a gateway to the more lucrative world of credit hire—a segment left largely untouched by government intervention.

Perhaps most intriguingly, Winn Group has negotiated fixed charges with insurers, effectively setting the terms on credit hire and settling more than half its cases without recourse to litigation. Insurers, one suspects, do not relish paying the bills, but have come to appreciate the relative certainty and reduced costs.

As Chris Birkett, the group’s CEO, notes, such an arrangement would have been unthinkable five years ago; now, Winn Group is accepted—if not exactly embraced—by the insurance world.

Jeff Winn himself cuts an interesting figure: a former legal aid solicitor who capitalised on the personal injury boom of the 2000s, once dubbed the best-paid lawyer in the country. After a costly divorce, he turned to private equity to maintain the company’s momentum.

These days, he works three days a week, spends time with his young family, and escapes the British winter in search of sun. Yet retirement is not imminent: expansion plans are afoot, particularly in the wills and probate division, with an eye to creating a comprehensive “one-stop shop” for clients.

THAT House

For those interested in property, Winn’s personal life offers its own subplot. His Victorian Gothic mansion, Jesmond Towers, is currently on the market for a cool £20 million.

The property, once a private school, now boasts 12 bespoke bedrooms, a cinema, gym, wine cellar, and even a dog grooming room. It survived a fire in 2021 (while Winn was holidaying in Thailand), and its grandeur is such that one imagines even Netflix would struggle to do it justice.

For more on Winn Group’s recent developments, their news section is a useful resource, with updates on staff promotions, charity work, and legal sector mergers. The group’s brands—Winn Solicitors, On Medical, On Hire, and Onhealth—reflect a business that is not merely growing, but evolving.

So, the next time someone suggests Winn Group is a provincial player, you might gently correct them. The company is not simply participating in the legal sector; it is, in many respects, redefining it. And as for Jeff Winn, one suspects his story has a few more chapters yet to be written—perhaps in a new mansion, or perhaps in the next phase of legal innovation.

As for the rest of us, we can only watch with interest—and, perhaps, a touch of envy at the dog grooming room.