Born Norma Sondra Levy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Shapiro was Jewish.

She was a law clerk for Judge Horace Stern of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1951 to 1952.

[2][3] Shapiro was nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President Jimmy Carter on August 1, 1978, to a seat vacated by Judge James Henry Gorbey.

She was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 11, 1978, and received her commission the same day.

[3] She died on July 22, 2016, at the age of 87 at the Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood, Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, after a brief illness.