About LEAP

LEAP for Justice Foundation began with a simple observation: India has a strong legal framework, yet for many individuals and communities, accessing justice remains difficult.

The challenge often begins before a person reaches a lawyer or courtroom. People may not know their rights, where to seek help, or how to navigate available legal processes. In many cases, the difficulty is therefore not simply the absence of legal rights, but the difficulty of reaching and using the rights and remedies that already exist.

This led to a broader realisation: access to justice cannot be addressed through legal representation alone. A person may have a legal right and still struggle to exercise it because information is difficult to find, support systems are unclear, or available processes are difficult to navigate.

LEAP was founded with the objective of building an institution that makes access to justice more practical, accessible, and sustainable.

At present, given the resources available to us, we begin where we can make the most meaningful contribution — through free legal assistance that I can personally devote my time and professional experience to providing.

But LEAP is intended to be more than an individual effort. Over time, we aim to bring together and grow a community of like-minded individuals who wish to contribute to access to justice — whether as lawyers, professionals, volunteers, supporters, or donors — and, through that collective effort, build stronger pathways to justice.

LEAP reflects the idea of moving forward — from rights on paper to rights in practice, from uncertainty to understanding, and from isolated efforts to stronger collective pathways to justice.

LEAP is being built with a long-term institutional perspective. We begin with what we can genuinely do today, while working towards a stronger network of people, capabilities, partnerships, and resources that can expand what LEAP is able to do tomorrow.

The aim is not simply to provide individual interventions, but to build an institution and a community that can strengthen access to justice over time.

Shivam Tiwari is an advocate with more than six years of experience across courts and jurisdictions in India, including experience before the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court, and various High Courts and courts across the country. His professional experience spans commercial litigation, arbitration, insolvency, real estate disputes, information technology, and white-collar matters.

His experience of working across different areas of law and jurisdictions has also brought a practical understanding of the difficulties individuals can face in understanding their rights and navigating the legal system. These experiences contributed to the idea of building an institution focused not only on legal assistance, but on strengthening the broader pathways through which people can access justice.