Vala Setareh founded Schiller Legal on a simple belief: great legal counsel should unlock possibility, not just solve problems.
 

Dual qualified in Australia and Germany, and trained across both common and civil law traditions, Vala brings a rare blend of global perspective and commercial instinct.

 

But his real education came from the arena. As co-founder and CEO of health tech and insurance tech startups, Vala lived the founder experience. Raising capital whilst protecting equity. Scaling operations whilst managing risk. Negotiating partnerships whilst building a team. The sleepless nights over cash flow. The high stakes negotiations. The weight of decisions made with incomplete information and limited time.
 

That experience changed everything. It taught him that the best legal advice is not about compliance or caution. It is about clarity, leverage, and judgement. It is about helping founders see around corners, structure deals that create momentum, and protect what they are building without slowing them down.
 

Today, Vala works with growth companies, boards, and investors who need more than a lawyer. They need a trusted adviser who has been in their shoes. He has advised on fundraising rounds from $200,000 to $1.1 billion, navigated complex mergers and acquisitions and regulatory challenges for fintech and insurtech businesses, and served as legal counsel to startups across the Sydney Startup Hub, the largest innovation ecosystem in the southern hemisphere.

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But what drives him is not the deal size. It is the transformation. Watching a founder move from uncertainty to confidence. Seeing a company unlock its next stage of growth because the legal structure finally matched the business vision. Knowing that clarity and strategic counsel did not just mitigate risk. They amplified success.
 

Vala holds a Master of Laws with high distinction in corporate and commercial law. But more than credentials, what defines him is a calling to serve. To solve challenges through both logic and creativity, so that the founders and leaders he works with do not just survive the journey, but find joy and momentum in it.
 

That is the promise of Schiller Legal: legal counsel that turns complexity into clarity, risk into opportunity, and uncertainty into the confidence to build something extraordinary.