Ask any local authority and they'll tell you that Stefan Cross is a greedy ambulance chaser holding them to ransom. Ask him and he'll probably tell you that he's a crusader for justice and equality. Either way, the Newcastle-based employment lawyer has had a profound impact on Britain’s public sector. Cross is almost single-handedly responsible for the tens of thousands of equal pay claims that are clogging up the tribunal system and could cost the Government billions. Cross, 46, studied law at Southampton and Leicester before beginning his career at G A Mooning Aldridge & Brownlee in 1983. Two years later he moved to Thompsons Solicitors, where he became an equity partner in 1990. After building a thriving practice representing trade unions, he set out on his own in 2002. A workaholic who once collapsed at his desk from stress, he is rumoured to earn millions although he only takes a cut of the cases he wins. True to his rabble-rousing reputation, he lists his interests as trashy crime thrillers, indie rock music and politics — he even sat as a Labour councillor in Newcastle from 1990 to 1998. Married with two sons and two daughters, he is a Newcastle FC season-ticket holder.

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