Firm Wants Discrimination Suit Dropped

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, known for being a venture-capital law firm, has asked the state court of California to drop a lawsuit that was made against them by a partner, Ellen Pao, who has filed a lawsuit while claiming that discrimination took place. The firm says that each of the allegations made by Pao was false and continues to deny that any sort of discrimination took place. In Silicon Valley, this lawsuit has made major headlines and has basically become the talk of the town. Pao’s lawsuit states that the firm basically treated women differently and considered them to be a buzz kill, if anything. However, Kleiner claims that as a partner, Pao was not performing the way that she was supposed to and also never spoke up about the treatment she received at the firm with her partners, who happen to be all male.

Pao filed a lawsuit with seven pages of complaints made against the firm. In her complaint, she stated that the firm would hold dinners for male partners only, no females allowed and that a managing partner at the firm kept telling her that she should marry one of the male partners of the firm; a partner whom Pao believes harassed her for quite a while during her time at the firm. Pao also made various other complaints, stating that women received smaller shares from the firm and that men received alrge shares for profits of the firm.

The firm argues that Pao never made any complaints about the harassment that she is now claiming took place, until the beginning of 2012 or the end of 2011, even though she had been working for the firm since 2007. In the lawsuit filed, Pao stated that one of the partners, Ajit Nazre, was harassing her and did so throughout the years, from 2007 until 2009. However, she failed to complain about it until years later. The firm also believes that Pao’s performance was not up to par, and all of her reviews throughout the years, from 2009 until 2011, had mixed reviews. While Pao did receive some positive feedback, she also received some negative feedback as well. One comment stated that Pao had a rough time being a leader and that she needed to exhibit more leadership skills. However, Pao said that Kleiner rarely promoted women and was constantly promoting men at the firm. She also claims that the partner, Nazre, kept pressuring her, trying to get her to have sex with him, even after she ended their relationship that they once had.

The firm was first founded back in 1972 and has worked with a number of different firms, including Amazon.Com Incorporation and the Electronic Arts Incorporation.