[3] Born and raised in Houston, Texas, United States,[1] Laws is the fifth of eight children.
In 1972, Laws joined the band Earth, Wind & Fire, where he played saxophone and flute on their album Last Days and Time.
[4] In 1975, Laws issued his debut album entitled Pressure Sensitive on Blue Note Records.
[10] Laws' fourth studio LP, entitled Flame was released in September 1978 on United Artists.
He later played saxophone on Ramsey Lewis' 1983 album Les Fleurs, Sister Sledge's 1983 LP Bet Cha Say That to All the Girls, Deniece Williams' 1984 album Let's Hear It for the Boy and Jeff Lorber's 1984 LP In the Heat of the Night.
Laws also performed on Alphonse Mouzon's 1985 album The Sky Is the Limit and 1988 LP Early Spring.