This section of the Roger Law Archive represents Law's life, both personal and professional, prior to the 'Luck & Flaw' years, when he and Peter Fluck began a professional partnership in 1975. The personal part of this section spans from the late 1940s to 1974, with an emphasis on his time at the Cambridge School of Art. The professional part covers his early career, mainly as a newspaper and magazine illustrator, from 1959 to 1975, slightly overlapping with the next section of this archive.

In many of the catalogue descriptions for this section of the archive, the reference 'RL/Pre-/number' appears alongside the mention of an item. This is an original reference number given to artwork, etc by Law's wife, Deirdre Amsden, who created the initial listing of the archive's contents. These reference numbers can be used to search what is known as 'the bible,' which is a bundle of documentation found in the Deirdre Amsden Paperwork section of the archive. 'The bible' contains further background and other information about items, which are not necessarily found in the catalogue descriptions.