Originally formed as an all-volunteer organization in 1998, the APALRC grew out of a collaborative effort by students from D.C. area law schools and attorneys associated with the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA) and the South Asian Bar Association (SABA). The APALRC was founded in response to the lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate legal services for the growing number of Asian Pacific Americans. Since its founding, the APALRC has flourished from an all-volunteer organization to an organization with 10 board members, 13 full-time staff, over 20 bilingual law student volunteers, and over 70 trained/qualified legal interpreters, who collectively speak over 20 different Asian languages and dialects.

Since 1998, the APALRC has launched and established several direct service projects, including a multi-lingual legal referral helpline and legal interpreter project, a worker representation project, and a legal assistance project for victims of domestic violence. In 2002, the APALRC expanded into civil rights advocacy with its involvement on the issue of language access.