Dr. Lawton grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Lexington High School in 1982. After high school, he attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with the highest honors (summa cum laude) in 1986. He graduated second in his class and was elected to the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the Golden Key Honor Society. After college, he attended medical school at the University of Massachusetts at Worcester. He received the degree Doctor of Medicine in 1990 and distinguished himself as a Senior Scholar in Surgery.

Dr. Lawton began his surgical training at Yale University in 1990. During his General Surgery training, he spent 2 years in the laboratory of the Gastrointestinal Pathobiology Research Group. He received the highly coveted American College of Surgeons Scholarship for the Study of Wound Healing and the Ohse Foundation Research Fellowship. He also received Scientific Awards from the Association of Veterans Administration Surgeons and the Connecticut Society of American Board Surgeons.

Dr. Lawton received his training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he earned the Corso Award for Outstanding Research in both 1999 and 2000. His research concerned the microscopic 3-dimensional anatomy of the midface and lymph node dissections for melanoma.