Ljiljana Lalović was born in Sarajevo on 24 October 1960, where she graduated from the Law Faculty in 1984. Between June 1985 and 1998 she worked with the administrative authorities, from municipal to the republic levels, in all instances and on different administration issues regarding the status of citizens and citizenships. She was employed as a legal officer at the Istočno Sarajevo District Court until October 2000, when she moved to the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees to the post of the Head of the Department for Foreigners, where she worked on administrative issues pertaining to the movement and stay of foreigners, asylum and banishment.

During that period, as a member of working groups that were formed within the South-East Europe Stability Pact, she worked on the preparation of draft laws and other general acts and she was also the head of the working group tasked with drafting the law on the movement and stay of foreigners and asylum, as well as of the working group for setting the rules of the treatment of human trafficking victims. She took part in the work of several seminars organised by the European Commission, namely: in the field of conflict resolution, administrative management, in the field of human rights protection and the implementation of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, especially regarding foreigners.  

In 2003 she was appointed as a judge of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo and she has worked in the field of civil law ever since. She took part in the work of the Tim za promjene (Team for Changes) on solving backlog and outstanding cases, and she was especially engaged in the training of legal officers and preparation of training programs for legal officers. She is the deputy president of the Steering Board of the Centre for the Training of Judges and Prosecutors in the Federation BiH. She was appointed as a judge of the Court of BiH on 10 April 2008.