Purvi Shah

Founder & Executive Director, Movement Law Lab

she/her

Purvi Shah is an experienced legal innovator and movement lawyer. One of the nation’s premier thinkers on law and social movements, Purvi founded Movement Law Lab to seed a new generation of legal problem-solvers to tackle some of America’s toughest justice challenges.

Purvi is the Co-Founder of Law For Black Lives, a national network of 3400 lawyers dedicated to supporting the Movement For Black Lives that was founded in the aftermath of the Ferguson and Baltimore uprisings. Before that, Purvi worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights where she directed the Bertha Justice Institute, the nation’s first training institute dedicated to advancing movement lawyering across the United States and the world. Through the Institute, Purvi trained hundreds of lawyers and law students on how to use law to create social change.

Purvi has also worked as a litigator, law professor, and community organizer. Purvi co-founded the Community Justice Project at Florida Legal Services where she litigated for six years on behalf of taxi drivers, tenant unions, public housing residents, and immigrants. She also was a law professor, serving as the founding Co-Director of the Community Lawyering Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law. Purvi has also worked as a community organizer with youth in Miami, students in India, and families of incarcerated youth in California.

Purvi currently sits on the advisory boards for Law For Black Lives, the Detroit Justice Center, and the Community Justice Project. Inc., and Constitutional Communications. She has been awarded a Soros Equality Fellowship, Miami Foundation Fellowship, and a New Voices Fellowship for her work. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Berkeley School of Law at the University of California.