Shivani Parikh was born in Queens to Gujarati immigrants and grew up in Rockland County, NY. After graduating from Cornell University, she worked at The Center for Safety & Change and volunteered with various Asian American organizations including MannMukti, South Asian Youth Action, and the National Asian Pacific American Women Forum’s New York City chapter. During her gap years, she was accepted to the Women of Color Network, Inc.'s Economic Policy & Leadership 2020 Mentorship Lab, Just Media’s inaugural fellowship cohort, the Supermajority Education Fund’s Majority Leaders 2021 program, bluelight academy's inaugural Transformative Justice summer class through the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NYSCASA), and the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)’s Bay Area Solidarity Summer training program.

At Fordham Law School, she was a Stein Scholar for Public Interest Law and Ethics, a Realizing Excellence and Access in the Law (REAL) Scholar, and Crowley Scholar within the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice. She served as President and, subsequently, the chairwoman of the Board of Advisors for the North American South Asian Law Students Association (NASALSA).

She is a recipient of the Ms. JD Public Interest Scholarship, a winner of the South Asian Bar Association of New York’s (SABANY) Public Interest Fellowship, a Clinton Global Initiative University selected commitment maker, a graduate of Sakhi for South Asian Women's Summer Young Leaders Program, an alumna of Indian American Impact’s Desis Lead Political Mentorship Program, and the beVisioneers-Mercedes Benz Fellowship.

Inspired by civil rights and racial justice advocates Fatima Meer and Jayaben Desai, she is committed to building the South Asian LDF to respond to the legal needs of our Desi families and communities.