The Fund is housed and administered by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that advocates for gender justice in the courts, in public policy, and in our society.

The TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund was co-founded in January 2018 by Roberta Kaplan and Tina Tchen,[1][2][3] both formerly with the TIME'S UP Foundation, and Fatima Goss Graves,[4] President and CEO of the National Women's Law Center.

[5] In August 2021 Kaplan and Tchen resigned from their roles with the TIME'S UP Foundation after an investigation into New York governor Andrew Cuomo's sexual harassment allegations revealed TIME'S UP leadership had advised Cuomo while he was fighting the allegations.

[11] The initial 2018 fundraising GoFundMe campaign for the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund raised $21 million in its first two months.

Through the NWLC’s Legal Network for Gender Equity,[13] the Fund also connects individuals with legal help in situations involving sex discrimination, including sex harassment, in the workplace, education, and health care.