After graduating from the Shevchenko National University in 1978, Lavrynovych worked in the NAN Ukrainian SSR. In 1981–1984 he served in military. From 1989 till 1998 Lavrynovych was one of the leaders of People's Movement of Ukraine. From 1990 till 1994 he was a member of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine and its First Deputy Chairman in 1991–1994. From 1998 till 2001 he was a People's Deputy of Ukraine for People's Movement of Ukraine parliamentary faction, surrendering his deputy mandate early. In 2002 Lavrynovych was elected to parliament on the Our Ukraineparty list, but refused to be registered. In May 2002 Lavrynovych was appointed as Justice Minister in the Kinakh Government. In the First Yanukovych Government he was also Minister of Justice of Ukraine. After a short intermezzo as Deputy Chairman of the Board of "Ukrnafta" Lavrynovych returned to national politics in August 2006 as First Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the Second Yanukovych Government. But he soon moved to the post Minister of Justice of Ukraine again. In the 2007 parliamentary election he was elected Deputy of Ukraine for Party of Regions. From the dismissal of Arseniy Yatsenyuk till the election of Volodymyr Lytvyn as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Lavrynovych assumed the position as acting chairman from November 12, 2008 till December 9, 2008. The Verkhovna Rada refused to include in its agenda an issue concerning dismissal of its first Vice Speaker Lavrynovych on November 17, 2009. Starting 11 March 2010 Lavrynovych became Justice Minister again. On 2 July he was elected as member of the Supreme Council of Justice of Ukraine. Olena Lukash replaced Lavrynovych as Justice Minister 2 days later. On April 10, 2014 Oleksandr Lavrynovych resigned from his position with Supreme Council of Justice. Since that time he is acting as legal expert and holds the position with the Board of Institute for Legal Society, Non-governmental organization. On 13 July 2015 the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office announced that Lavrynovych was suspected of embezzling public funds worth more than 8.5 million Hryvnia. It said these funds were used to finance foreign law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom that helped to win the court case in the European Court of Human Rights by the State of Ukraine and at the same time "to conceal evidence of criminal violations of the law by Ukrainian state law enforcement agencies and the courts" during the 2011 trial of Yulia Tymoshenko. In March 2016 Ukrainian court released Mr. Lavrynovych from any restrictions of Prosecutor's office.
