The academy was founded on the initiative of Hans Frank, the head of the Reich Legal Department (Reichsrechtabteilung) in the Nazi Party's national leadership (Reichsleitung) and, at the time, also the Bavarian Minister of Justice.

The inaugural meeting was held on 2 October 1933 in Leipzig at the "German Lawyers' Day" conference of the National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals, which Frank had headed since 1928.

[2] The academy generally was charged with promoting reform of German legal life by working in liaison with legislative bodies to implement the Nazi program in the fields of law and economics.

Among the academy's specific tasks were: (1) composition, initiation and preparation of draft laws, (2) rejuvenating and unifying training in jurisprudence and political science, (3) editing and supporting publications, (4) financing and assisting research work in law and political economy, (5) organizing conferences and training courses, and (6) cultivation of relations with similar institutions abroad.

Among the high Nazi Party and government officials were Frank, Walter Buch, Wilhelm Frick, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Rosenberg, Julius Streicher,[5] and Baldur von Schirach.

The foundation stone was laid for a new Haus des Deutschen Rechts (House of German Law) at Ludwigstrasse 28 in Munich on 24 October 1936, and the building officially opened on 13 May 1939.

Alarmed by the increase in extrajudicial killings and other police state tactics, Frank made a series of four speeches at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the universities of Berlin, Munich and Heidelberg in June and July 1942 defending the existing German judicial system.

Frank's successor, Minister of Justice Thierack, attempted to push on with Nazi reform of the German law code, but by now the war was consuming nearly all of Hitler's time and attention.