A California jury has ruled against Ellen Pao by finding that Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers did not discriminate against her because of her gender nor did the venture capital firm deny her a promotion because of her gender.
Pao’s lawsuit was the highest-profile gender discrimination case to come out of Silicon Valley.
“As the jury forewoman read out the ‘no’ of the first part of the verdict, Pao’s lawyer, Therese Lawless, reached over and squeezed her shoulder. As the list of ‘no’s’ continued, there were a few muted gasps in the room.
“Next came a hiccup on the question of whether or not Pao was retaliated against because she wrote a memo about what she believed was gender discrimination at the firm or because she eventually filed a lawsuit against the firm.
The AP adds:
“A court clerk previously said the jury had cleared venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of discriminating and retaliating against Ellen Pao.
“However, the jury was re-polled in the courtroom after the announcement and the discrepancy was found involving one retaliation allegation.”
The jury was asked to clear up the discrepancy and they came back soon after to clear Kleiner Perkins of the last accusation.
As we reported, Pao had sued her former employer for $16 million in damages.
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