Lawrence C.B. Gower was the Law Commissioner for Great Britain and the former Dean of Law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He wrote The Principles of Modern Company Law (1954). Gower studied law at University College London, becoming a solicitor in 1937. During the Second World War, he served in the army. After the war, he began teaching law and in 1948 was appointed the Sir Ernest Cassel Professor of Commercial Law in London University. Throughout the 1950s he worked as honorary secretary of the Society of Public Teachers of Law. In the 1960s, he turned his attention towards African decolonization and served as adviser to the Nigerian Council for three years while also working at the University of Lagos. In Nigeria, he set up the professional Law School of Lagos, and in Ghana, he drew up the Ghana Company Law Code. After returning to the UK in 1965, he joined a number of government initiatives. Shortly after his return, he was appointed to the newly constituted Law Commission for the Reform of English Law and worked on the Ormrod Committee on Legal Education. From 1971, he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton. During this time, he also served on Harold Wilson’s Royal Commission on the Press, and following his retirement in 1979 he was called in by the Department of Trade to advise the British government on financial services. His work was embodied in the 1986 Financial Services Act. He died in 1997.