Born in Aberdeen, Lawson began his career at Celtic where he was captain of the reserves side, and was a regular for the Scotland national under-21 football team.
[2] Lawson played at right-back for Celtic in pre-season of 2006–07 against teams such as Manchester United and on the first game of the season in the 4–1 defeat of Kilmarnock which put them top of the league.
Lawson spent the first half of the 2006–07 season on loan at Scottish First Division club St Johnstone, scoring his first professional goal against Queen of the South.
[4][5] After being an unused substitute in Celtic's 2–0 defeat of Kilmarnock on 2 January 2007, Lawson completed a second loan move, this time to St Mirren.
He scored six times, against Greenock Morton, Partick Thistle, Dundee, Dunfermline Athletic (twice) and Berwick Rangers.
[14] During the season, Lawson was in the squad throughout Ross County's campaign in the Scottish Cup with the club reaching the final after beating Celtic in the semi-final.
[15] In the Scottish Cup Final, Ross County lost 3–0 against Dundee United with Lawson coming on as a substitute for Steven Craig.
Lawson scored his first SPL goal, in a 2–0 win over Dundee on 8 February 2013, followed with his second in the Highland derby against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, which Ross County lost 2–1.
[22] Lawson made his Motherwell debut in the first leg of the third round of Europa League, in a 2–0 loss against Kuban Krasnodar.
Following his recovery in time for the pre-season friendly,[26] Lawson played his first game since recovering from an injury, in a 1–0 loss against St Johnstone on 30 August 2014.