Professional Life
In 1974, he unsuccessfully stood as a candidate in the local elections to Dublin County Council. In 1977 he was elected to Dáil Éireann for Dublin County West as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD). In 1979, he became a member of Dublin County Council.
At the 1981 general election he lost his Dáil seat in what was now the constituency of Dublin West, regained it in February 1982, but lost it again in the November 1982 general election. Lawlor regained his Dáil seat again in the 1987 election, and was appointed Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Commercial State-Sponsored Bodies. He resigned the position in 1989 due to his position as a non-executive director of Food Industries, a company that wished to acquire the Irish Sugar Company. In 1991 he lost his seat on Dublin City Council, and in the 1992 general election he nearly lost his Dáil seat to Tomás Mac Giolla of the Workers' Party. It is widely believed that Mac Giolla was cheated by Fianna Fáil in the election; the emergence of information that the since disgraced and jailed George Redmond was one of the local government officials who conducted the election count has added weight to this view.
Liam Lawlor was one of a number of local councillors who were called as witnesses before the Flood Tribunal investigating planning and payments in County Dublin. He admitted receiving sums of money from the lobbyist Frank Dunlop which he stated were political donations and not bribes.
Lawlor was also a European member of the controversial private political group, the Trilateral Commission.
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