The European Lawyers Association was founded in 1985 by the alumni of the British Council's European Young Lawyers' Scheme, with a view to maintaining the professional and social contacts established during the course of the Scheme, and to build upon and further develop these links with past and future participants and UK practitioners.

The European Lawyers Association is probably the only real multidisciplinary lawyers association in Europe in the sense that its members comprise not only private practitioners, but also in-house lawyers, lawyers in government practice, judges and lawyers working for international institutions.