January 1997 The Board passed a modified version of their proposals at a Board meeting. Many grad students came to the meeting and were very upset by the lack of regard given to their concerns by the members of the Board. At the same time, the university was bringing forward mandatory fee increases for Athletics Fees, Computer Fees, and Student Aid. At this time Tara Ivanochko was on the Board of Governors and Michael Hughes was Director of Student Affairs for the Graduate Student Society.

March 1997 Many students were very upset by the fee increases imposed by the Board. On the day of the Board meeting approximately 50 students occupied the office of President David Strangway. The Board passed the increases but six students, including James Pond and Annette Muttray occupied the office for six days.

Fall 1997 Soon after the occupation of the office, Amir Attaran, then a student at Green College, approached a number of students with the idea that the tuition increases were illegal due to a violation of a Board of Governors policy entitled "Consultation with Students" and the BC Rate Freeze Act. Amir prepared and filed the case with the BC Supreme Court. Students worked hard to raise approximately $5000 from the campus and from student groups nationally. In November, the case was eventually partially sucessful: the university had to refund approximately $1M in illegally collected fees but the international student fee increses were deemed legal.

November 1997 The APEC summit was held at UBC. Many students were arrested, pepper sprayed, and had protest signs confiscated by police. In the wake of this there were many calls for a public inquiry. The Public Complaints Commission of the RCMP called a series of hearings. Many were upset by the fact that the RCMP and Government had all their legal fees paid for by the government while the protestors were on their own. A fundraising effort was set up but was only able to raise approximately $15,000. However, eventually the government decided to pay for legal funding after a scandal caused the resignation of the federal Solicitor General.

March 1998 Based on this history, the founders of the Society saw the need for a student run society to work for student interests in a legal arena. It was seen that the major obstacle in the fights listed above was the need to raise money on an individual basis. Therefore petitions were collected to force a student society referendum calling for $1 from each student to fund the SLFS as well an optional $12 Student Aid fee which had been defeated by the lawsuit. These fees passed the referendum.

September 1998 The Student Legal Fund Society was incorporated on September 30, 1998 it is the first of it's kind at a Canadian university. The first Board of Directors was Michael Hughes, Ryan Marshall (AMS), Rupinder Sohal, Emmanual Adjei-Achampong, Bridget Donald, and Paul Champ.