![]() ![]() "This tentative ruling recognizes that our settlement offer was reasonable and made in good faith,'' Lee said. Pao's attorney, Alan Exelrod, said the offer was not made in good faith and had no reasonable expectation of acceptance. The company has said it offered Pao $964,000 before the trial to settle the case, but she did not respond. Kleiner Perkins spokeswoman Christina Lee said the judge had reached a fair result. Heather Wilson, a spokeswoman for Pao, said she did not have an immediate comment. "There is no doubt that KPCB has `vastly' greater economic resources than Ms. The fees Kleiner Perkins is seeking should be scaled down to reflect Pao's more limited financial resources, the judge said. Kahn said the company is entitled to $276,000. Pao's attorneys have called the amount excessive. Kleiner Perkins is seeking more than $970,000 in legal costs from Pao, much of it for experts the company called to testify at trial. The case became a flashpoint in an ongoing discussion about gender inequity at elite technology and venture capital firms, where women are grossly underrepresented. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn issued the ruling a day before attorneys for plaintiff Ellen Pao and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are due in court.Ī jury in March found that Kleiner Perkins did not discriminate or retaliate against Pao. But performance reviews from 2005 to 2011 show Pao received some negative feedback from Kleiner Perkins management even during earlier years.A woman who lost a high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against a Silicon Valley venture capital firm is liable for about a quarter of the roughly $1 million in legal costs the company is seeking, a judge said Wednesday in a tentative ruling. And, while there were no female managing members at the firm, there have only been 8 managing members at Kleiner Perkins in all of its history, according to Schlein’s testimony.Ĭorrection 7:20 PM EST : An earlier version of this article stated that, according to court testimony, there was a big change in the wording of Pao’s negative performance review in 2012, after filing a lawsuit with KPCB in that year. According to Schlein, Kleiner had only promoted three people-Doerr in 1982, Joseph Lacob in 1992, and Doug Mackenzie in 1994-in its first thirty years. Schlein, in his testimony, said he thought Pao’s skills were better suited for an operating role rather than an investing one, because she was good at “getting stuff done,” but that she didn’t have the ability to understand nuances and didn’t have the instincts required to succeed as a venture capitalist.Īnd, Schlein testified, there were actually very few promotions within the firm. In opening arguments, the Kleiner team showed slides from 2005 to 2012 that found fault with Pao for not creating trusting relationships with partners. In its rebuttal, the Kleiner Perkins defense team tried to prove that there was no retaliation-and that Pao had received criticism for her performance throughout the years. Pao was later dismissed from the company-in October 2012-and with her suit, she said that gender bias played a role in her dismissal. As the trial continues to unfold, it provides an unusually detailed look at gender issues within the world of high-tech, and it could have far-reaching consequences over how the tech industry views and treats women in the future. His deposition provided another window into on the inner workings of one of the most prominent venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. ![]() Schlein was testifying as the Pao case approached the end of its first week in a San Francisco court. Ted Schlein, a managing parter at KPCB, confirmed this on the witness stand in a San Francisco court today, and said that, as part of the team evaluating Pao that year, he was likely aware of Pao’s lawsuit against the firm as he was providing input for her review. After Ellen Pao filed her gender-bias suit against big-name venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, her peers rated her performance positively, but she received a negative performance review from senior members of management, according to court testimony. ![]()
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