It is with great sadness that we regret to inform you that our founder, owner and Chairman Chris Wait passed away on Friday, 23 December peacefully at home.
Chris began his insurance career in 1985 and had been specifically involved in legal expenses insurance since 1992.
He has been a significant force in the development of the ATE insurance market – being the individual underwriter who made decisions on many landmark cases, such as Callery v Gray, Sarwar v Alam, Tilby v Perfect Pizza and Musa King v Telegraph Newspapers. His influence was also felt in consultations with the Civil Justice Council and Department of Justice to help shape and develop the ATE insurance market.
Chris was Temple Legal Protection’s founding Managing Director from the company’s formation until 2019, during which time the company grew to write over £50million GWP per annum. He personally introduced innovations such as deferred premiums and stepped premiums for ATE insurance, plus insurance-backed employment law advice schemes available to law firms.
In June 2019 Chris became Chairman of the board of directors and continued to be a role-model and mentor to all the Temple staff, while providing leadership and strategic support to the board.
Chris’ dynamic and inspirational leadership provided the foundations for Temple Legal Protection to grow from a firm with Chris as the sole employee to a market-leading provider of legal expenses insurance. His presence will be sorely missed by the board, the wider team and our network of legal and insurance partners.
When not at work, Chris would often be found sailing and enjoying life on the open waves. A man of many talents, he was equally at home in the cockpit of light aircraft, clay pigeon shooting or experiencing the full range of emotions in his support of Arsenal FC.
Chris leaves his wife Joanne and their four children. Our thoughts are with all of them at this time.
