Kleiner run "like a boys club," Pao attorney tells jurors
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A former partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers was judged by a different standard than male colleagues, her attorney told jurors on Tuesday, as a landmark Silicon Valley sex bias case entered its final stages.
During closing arguments in San Francisco Superior Court, plaintiff Ellen Pao's attorney Alan Exelrod said men ran Kleiner Perkins and "no woman was going to challenge them."
"They ran Kleiner Perkins like a boys club," Exelrod said, in a case that helped spark a broad discussion about sexism in the notoriously clubby tech start-up scene.
Attorneys for Kleiner are expected to deliver their closing argument later on Tuesday.
The case has laid bare the personnel matters of the firm that backed Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc, 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. [L1N0VZ031]
The firm vigorously disputes those charges and has presented 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.
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.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating following closing arguments.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Christian Plumb)