Ellen Pao Loses Silicon Valley Gender Bias Case Against Kleiner Perkins

One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms prevailed over a former partner, Ellen Pao, in a suit alleging gender discrimination in the course of her employment and her ultimate dismissal. A jury of six men and six women rejected Pao’s claims against the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in a case that has captivated Silicon Valley and renewed questions about the lack of diversity in the technology industry. Shortly after the verdict was read, however, the judge sent the jury back to deliberate on one of the claims, where jurors had voted 8 to 4 in Kleiner’s favor. Nine jurors have to agree for there to be a decision on a claim. Pao’s suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, claimed that Kleiner did not promote her because of her gender; that it retaliated against her for complaining; that it failed to prevent gender discrimination; and that ultimately it fired her in 2012 for complaining. Her suit asked $16 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages. Pao is now interim chief of the social media news site Reddit.