Michael Laws announces candidacy for Commonwealth's Attorney

Received November 17, 2023

On Wednesday, November 8, 2023, local attorney Michael Laws filed paperwork with the Secretary of State to be placed on the 2024 ballot as a candidate for the office of Commonwealth's Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit, serving Harrison, Nicholas, Pendleton, and Robertson Counties. For the last nearly seventeen years, Laws has served as the First Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit. After Commonwealth's Attorney Douglas Miller made it clear that he would not be seeking re-election in 2024, Laws announced his candidacy.

Former Commonwealth's Attorney Douglas Wright appointed Laws to his current position in January of 2007, and Laws worked side-by-side with Wright for two and a half years before Wright’s tragic death in 2009. When Douglas Miller was appointed as Commonwealth's Attorney in 2009, he asked Laws to continue as his First Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney, and Laws has served under Miller for the last fourteen years. In 2016, the Commonwealth's Attorneys' Association named Laws as Kentucky's Outstanding Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney, and, in 2023, Laws was presented with the Vickie Henderson Legacy award for his work prosecuting cases of child abuse. 

Laws’s parents are Steve and Diane Laws, and his grandparents are Jess and Elsie Laws and the late Ralph and Audrey Bradford. Laws grew up in Pendleton County and graduated from Pendleton County High School in 1999. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Political Science from Northern Kentucky University in 2003 and obtained his law degree from Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 2006. 

Laws has lived in Harrison County since 2006 and has been married to his wife Tara for nine years. He has two daughters, Hannah (24) and Naomi (13). Hannah is married to Justin Mosley, a Boone County Deputy Sheriff, and they have two daughters Vada and Violet. Laws is a member of Leesburg Christian Church.