BUSINESS :Silicon Valley gender trial enters final stages

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dollar signs
rather than discrimination drove a former
partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers to file her gender
discrimination suit, a lawyer for the firm told
jurors Tuesday in the high-profile trial.
"The complaints of Ellen Pao were made for
only one purpose,” said Lynne Hermle, a
lawyer for Kleiner Perkins, in her closing
arguments in San Francisco Superior Court.
“A huge payout for Team Ellen."
But Pao’s lawyer, Alan Exelrod, told a
different version of events in the case, which
has become a cultural touchstone in Silicon
Valley and beyond.
"They ran Kleiner Perkins like a boys' club,"
Exelrod said of firm leaders, whom he
blamed for creating an environment that
worked against women.
Originally filed in 2012, the lawsuit has
unfolded as the technology industry tries to
come to grips with its low numbers of
women, especially at senior levels.
Increasingly, technology companies are
debating how much their culture, rather than
the paucity of women trained in science and
technology, is to blame.
Jurors are being asked to decide whether
Kleiner discriminated against Pao and failed
to prevent discrimination against her based
on gender, and whether it retaliated against
her by not promoting her and subsequently
firing her.
The case has laid bare the personnel matters
of the firm that backed Google ( GOOG.O ) and
Amazon ( AMZN.O ), painting it as a
quarrelsome pressure cooker where a former
male partner used business trips as
opportunities to make advances to female
colleagues.
Evidence that will factor into jurors' decision
ranges from whether women were
maliciously excluded from events such as an
all-male dinner hosted by Vice President Al
Gore, a Kleiner partner, to the criteria used in
promotions.
Pao’s lawyers say that characteristics that
helped men, such as competitiveness, hurt
female partners, whereas Kleiner’s lawyers
say all partners were judged equally on
merit. While Pao’s lawyers say some women
were promoted rapidly only after Pao started
complaining, Kleiner’s lawyers say the firm
decided on the promotions months earlier.
Pao, now interim chief executive at social-
news service Reddit, claims her standing at
Kleiner crumbled after she ended a brief
affair with partner Ajit Nazre. Her career
deteriorated after he and Kleiner started
retaliating against her, her lawyers argue.
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Pao sought to illustrate her points with
testimony from former Kleiner partner, Trae
Vassallo, who said Nazre appeared at her
hotel room late at night on a business trip.
He wore a bathrobe and carried a glass of
wine, according to testimony.
Kleiner has vigorously disputed Pao’s
allegations, arguing that it investigated Nazre
following Vassallo's complaint, after which
he quickly left the firm.
Some witnesses, including Pao's one-time
mentor John Doerr, have testified that Pao's
lack of advancement stemmed from subpar
performance, not discrimination or
retaliation.
Pao’s attorneys countered that she laid the
groundwork for the firm’s highly successful
investment in RPX, ( RPXC.O ) the patent
company, as well as suggesting an early
investment in Twitter TWTR.O, an idea more
senior partners rejected at that time.
In court on Tuesday, Exelrod called Pao "a
hardworking, incredibly thoughtful productive
employee" who generated more revenue than
any of the men who were promoted in 2012.
"Ellen Pao drove the returns. The men
received the promotions," Exelrod said.
Later, Hermle played down Pao’s
contributions at RPX and elsewhere.
“She was not a fit for the team-based culture
that is at the heart of venture capital,”
Hermle said.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating
following the end of closing arguments,
which are scheduled to continue on
Wednesday.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by
Christian Plumb and Ken Wills)