28/03/2015
SAN
FRANCISCO — One of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital firms
prevailed on Friday over a former partner in a closely watched suit
claiming gender discrimination, but hardly got away unscathed.
The
plaintiff, Ellen Pao, had accused the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers, of discriminating against her in the course of her
employment and eventual dismissal.
The
decision handed Kleiner a sweeping victory in a case that had
mesmerized Silicon Valley with its salacious details while
simultaneously amplifying concerns about the lack of diversity in the
technology industry.
Even
with her loss in the case, Ms. Pao’s suit succeeded in prompting debate
about women in technology and venture capital, said Deborah Rhode, a
law professor at Stanford University.
“This
case sends a powerful signal to Silicon Valley in general and the
venture capital industry in particular,” Ms. Rhode said. “Defendants who
win in court sometimes lose in the world outside it.”
Kleiner
and its lawyers did little to celebrate the win, with the lawyer Lynne
C. Hermle saying that it “never occurred to me for a second that a
careful and attentive jury like this would find either discrimination or
retaliation.” Kleiner issued a statement saying it was committed to
supporting women.
Ms.
Pao waved to the jury as she left the courtroom for the last time, a
smile fixed on her face. “If I’ve helped to level the playing field for
women and minorities in venture capital, then the battle was worth it,”
she said in a brief news conference.
Her
suit, filed in Superior Court here, 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 it
fired her in 2012 for complaining.
The
suit asked $16 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages.
Ms. Pao is now interim chief of the social media news site Reddit.
After
the jurors rejected each of her four claims, they were found to be one
vote short on a claim about her termination. For two hours, doubt
reigned, the media unspooled possible outcomes and the jury went back to
work. In the end, the problem seemed more juror confusion than anything
else, and the claim went down with the others.
The
jurors said in interviews they did not take on the role of “conscience
of this community,” as one of Ms. Pao’s lawyers had urged in the closing
arguments. They focused on the facts at hand, and concluded it was Ms.
Pao’s own performance that held her back.
One juror, Steve Sammut, 62, said it was difficult coming to a verdict.
“We
were split there for a while,” he said, adding that a key point was how
Ms. Pao’s reviews at Kleiner deteriorated over time. He also said the
witnesses for Kleiner, most of whom came from the firm, helped seal the
case.
Another
juror, Marshalette Ramsey, 41, said she believed Ms. Pao was
discriminated against. The male junior partners at Kleiner “had those
same character flaws that Ellen was cited with,” but they were promoted,
she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment