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 That will pave the way for a California jury to deliberate claims by
former Kleiner partner Ellen Pao that have helped spark a broad
discussion about sexism in the notoriously clubby tech start-up
scene.
The case has laid bare the personnel matters of the firm that backed
Google and Amazon, painting it as a quarrelsome pressure cooker
where a former male partner used business trips as opportunities to
make advances to female colleagues.
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.
The firm vigorously disputes those charges, presenting evidence that
Kleiner went out of its way to hire women.
Pao sought to illustrate her point with testimony from former
Kleiner partner, Trae Vassallo, who said Nazre appeared at her hotel
room on a business trip. He wore a bathrobe and carried a glass of
wine, according to testimony.
Kleiner has argued that it investigated Nazre after Vassallo
complained, after which he quickly left the firm.
Some witnesses, including Pao's onetime mentor John Doerr, have
testified that Pao's lack of advancement stemmed from subpar
performance, not discrimination or retaliation.
But Pao’s attorneys argue she laid the groundwork for the firm’s
highly successful investment in RPX, the patent company, as well as
suggesting an investment in Twitter, an idea more senior partners
rejected.
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Pao herself testified for five days and faced tough questions both
from Kleiner's legal team and from jurors in the case. One juror
asked if it was "professional to enter into affair with married
partner?"
"Going back I would not have done it again, but I didn't think it
was inappropriate at the time," Pao said, emphasizing that Nazre had
told her he was separated.
Among the firm's high profile female hires was Mary Meeker, a
technology analyst known as the Queen of the Net in the late 1990s,
who testified last week that she has never encountered
discrimination at Kleiner.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating following closing
arguments.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Christian Plumb)
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