No easy wins for women in discrimination lawsuits
Ellen Pao thought after three years of legal maneuvering, she had a fighting chance of beating Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Many observers of the trial, which lasted throughout March, thought so, too -- convinced by her allegations of sexism and bad-boy behavior at one of Silicon Valley's most powerful venture capital firms.
The San Francisco jury of six men and six women didn't buy it. They rejected Pao's claims that her ex-employer discriminated against her and later fired her after she'd complained about a pervasive double-standard in its treatment of men and women. Pao had sued the firm -- which backed notable tech companies from Amazon to Google to Zynga -- for $16 million, in part to compensate for lost income and in part "to bring Kleiner Perkins to the right path."
Now Kleiner Perkins is telling Pao, 45, she owes the firm nearly $1 million in legal costs unless she promises not to appeal. Pao is "considering" the proposal, according to her spokeswoman
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