LONDON (AP) — Lawyer Jeremy Hutchinson, a towering legal figure who helped liberalize British laws around sex and freedom of expression, has died at 102.

Hutchinson's former law firm, Three Raymond Buildings, said Tuesday that he died on Monday. No cause of death was given.

In 1960, Hutchinson successfully defended Penguin Books against obscenity charges for publishing D.H. Lawrence's novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

The trial came to be seen as a watershed moment. A prosecution lawyer infamously asked in court whether it was "a book that you would ... wish your wife or your servants to read?" Hutchinson felt that patrician attitude was out of touch with changing British society, and the jury agreed.

Other Hutchinson clients included "Profumo Affair" model Christine Keeler, Soviet spy George Blake and drug smuggler Howard Marks.