Prior to joining CHCF, Laws was on the staff of the California Managed Care Improvement Task Force. Before that, she was a senior consultant and manager with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where she worked in the government and health care strategy practices with clients including state health and human service agencies, and payer and provider organizations.

Laws also has worked as a consultant with the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, conducting research on trends in international development funding for HIV/AIDS; for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, providing technical assistance in program development and operations for nonprofits in developing countries; as a consultant for the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS; and as a caseworker and analyst for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare.

She serves on the advisory board of the Health Initiative of the Americas.

Laws received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Princeton University and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.