Siddharth V Rao
Director, Legal, Learning and Strategy
Siddharth is a trained lawyer and certified professional coach. At Counselect, he envisions and designs future-friendly workstreams to help GCs and legal teams function better. Based on his experiences as a lawyer, leader and coach, Siddharth advises clients on tools and approaches to bring business and contextual intelligence, and empathy, into the execution of legal roles.
As a lawyer, Siddharth has close to two decades of experience across private practice, in-house, venture capital and non-profit. His most recent experience was an eight-year stint at Sequoia Capital India & SEA (now Peak XV Partners), where he served as General Counsel from April 2019 to November 2022 and then as Operations Transformation in-charge until July 2023.
As GC of Sequoia/Peak XV, Siddharth led and expanded an India and Singapore-based team that advised on and led transaction processes during a high-growth phase. On the process transformation front, Siddharth initiated the setting up of new engagement models, including a fixed-term Legal Analyst programme that attracted top-quality lawyers with an interest in legal tech and innovation.
Prior to Sequoia/Peak XV, Siddharth worked with law firms, chiefly on transaction and corporate advisory matters. Siddharth has also worked with organisations in the not-for-profit and social impact consulting space.