Ellen Pao seeks appeal in Kleiner discrimination suit; Reddit’s interim CEO to hit another disappointment?
After San Francisco court gave verdict to Ellen Pao's suit against the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of gender discrimination, the former employee and the current interim chief executive officer of Reddit intends to appeal the court's decision. Will she win this time or will she hit another disappointment?
Ellen Pao, who was at the center of a high-profile case of sex bias at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, filed a notice of appeal in the San Francisco Superior Court on Monday against a March verdict.
Pao's spokesperson, Heather Wilson, has declined to comment about Ellen's appeal to the court's verdict of her suit against the KPCB's gender discrimination. For now, Pao has yet to submit a more detailed brief detailing the grounds for her appeal.
In late March, a six-man, six-woman jury were in favor of the defendant KPCB. The jurors declined all Pao's claims that the Silicon Valley firm's gender discriminated against her.
Pao had sought $16 million in damages from the company through the trial, but the court's verdict was not in favor of her. Three jurors had told that they looked at Pao's negative performance reviews to conclude that she did not deserve the promotion.
It was reported that Pao, who served the company for 7 years, had claimed that she faced numerous humiliations from the company, which includes an incident where she received a book of erotic poetry from a partner at the firm. The former staff also alleged that she was kept out of emails and meetings after she ended her affair with Ajit Nazre, a partner at the firm.
It is told that Kleiner had offered Pao $964,000 to settle the case before the trial began, which she turned down. Now, the KPCB is now asking a litigation cost from Pao amounting $973,000. But the venture capital firm has reportedly said that it would waive the reimbursement if Pao does not appeal. While the offer is still on the table, the hearing on legal costs is scheduled for June 18.
Reports speculated that Ellen Pao may face another disappointment, as the case would be heard by California's First District Court of Appeal, in which 84 percent cases were in favor of employers.
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