San Francisco - Former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers junior partner Ellen Pao said in a court filing she’ll appeal an order to pay $276 000 of the venture capital firm’s trial expenses after losing her sex-discrimination case against it.
Kleiner was awarded less than a third of the $972 814 it sought to cover its trial costs. Pao argued she should pay nothing because it would send the wrong message to employees trying to fight bias at the workplace.
The firm stands by its earlier offer to forgo the costs award if Pao agrees not to appeal the trial verdict, Kleiner spokeswoman Christina Lee said on Tuesday in an email.
Pao is appealing a ruling by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold E. Kahn concluding that she can afford to pay the $276 000 because she got carried interest from Kleiner funds and was serving as interim chief executive officer of Reddit. Pao resigned that post last month under pressure from Reddit’s board after she faced a backlash from users of its news-aggregation website for banning some message groups an firing of a popular executive.
Pao has filed a notice preserving her right to appeal the verdict. The jury rejected all of her claims that during her tenure at Kleiner she was subjected to a sexually charged atmosphere, preyed on by male colleagues and ultimately denied a promotion and fired because she complained about her treatment.
Kleiner’s case
Kleiner argued Pao didn’t succeed because she was hard to get along with, had no experience as an entrepreneur and lacked expertise in strategic markets for investments.
In June, Kleiner called the order awarding costs fair. “It also recognises the cost rules still apply when a plaintiff refuses a reasonable settlement offer and forces the parties to go through an expensive trial,” the firm said in a statement at the time.
Pao’s lawyer, Alan Exelrod, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday’s filing.
The case is Pao vs Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC, CGC-12-520719, California Superior Court (San Francisco).
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