A three-year-long legal battle came to a close earlier today, one that had come to symbolize Silicon Valley’s numerous issues with sexism. Ellen Pao filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins, back in 2012, alleging that the company denied her a promotion on the grounds that she was a woman. Kleiner Perkins, on the other hand, claimed that her failure to move up in the company was based on lack of merit, and the court ended up siding with Kleiner Perkins earlier this year. Pao immediately appealed the decision and promised to continue fighting, but she must have had a change of heart, because she announced earlier today that she’s dropping her appeal and paying Kleiner Perkins around $276,000 in legal fees.
The epic and historic lawsuit that has rocked tech over the last year is over. In a statement today, former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Ellen Pao said she would not pursue an appeal against the storied Silicon Valley venture firm in her gender discrimination and retaliation claim. Pao lost the case in a jury trial in San Francisco earlier this year and was weighing her next steps. Steps she said today in an interview she would not be taking. “I think I brought these important issues to the forefront of the conversation, but the online aggression has had a toll on me and my family,” she said. “That so many people heard what I had to say, against all that was brought to bear against me, is a testament to the depth of the problem related to women and tech … [But] I have gone as far as I can go and cannot commit the resources and time that would be needed to continue.” As part of the end of the lawsuit, Pao said she would pay Kleiner Perkins close to $276,000 in legal fees, which carried a 10 percent annual interest. But Kleiner had previously said it would waive those fees if she dropped the appeal, so it is not clear if Pao will be on the hook for those costs that included witness fees.
