Senior Legal Services was founded in 1972 by a small group of local activists that obtained funding from the U.S. Office of Aging to provide seniors with free legal services. This group of senior community activists recognized that the elderly were unable to obtain legal aid that addressed their unique problems. They believed that the elderly needed and deserved a program designed to meet their special needs. This group of activists included Ezetta Dawson, Connie Keafhauver, Claire McAdams, and Richard McAdams (who later became Justice McAdams of the Sixth Appellate District Court of California).

Since our founding, we have represented seniors and other vulnerable populations before government agencies at the local, state, and county level, as well as in the courts. We have secured legislation protecting rents in mobile home parks; litigated denials of unemployment benefits for seniors who were receiving social security retirement benefits, and rewrote harmful laws discriminating against seniors. We have also litigated against coercive medical rules, expanded the rights of the retired and disabled, and have continually sought to protect the elderly from consumer fraud.