Stanford Law School's Asian and Pacific Islander Law Students Association was founded in the mid-1980s as a resource for students from Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds. APILSA members are involved in activities that promote the interests of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) law students as well as the larger Asian and Pacific Islander communities. To create a supportive environment, APILSA organizes welcome activities for first-year law students and coordinates events with other law student groups. APILSA also provides academic assistance and advice to students conducting job searches.

APILSA recruits Asian and Pacific Islanders to Stanford by working with the other students-of-color organizations to coordinate the Law School's Minority Admit Weekend. In addition, APILSA works to increase the diversity of the Law School's faculty.

Members of APILSA established and currently staff the Asian Community Immigration Clinic, which provides free immigration advice to Asians in the San Francisco Bay Area. APILSA also helped coordinate a special event welcoming back to Stanford the Japanese-American students who were forced to leave in 1942 because of the war-related internment, and organized a series of discussion groups on legal issues facing Asian Americans. Each year, APILSA sponsors speakers on topics of interest to the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Past topics include media images of Asian Americans and immigration.