Ellen Pao exits San Francisco Superior Court, March 10, 2015.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Apparently Lynne Hermle isn’t the only one who can make people unhappy.
The attorney defending Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers against a gender discrimination suit brought by former partner Ellen Pao has a reputation for being so tough she reportedly once made a rival throw up. But in her questioning of the plaintiff on the witness stand today, Hermle convincingly established that Pao herself had once made a colleague cry.
Under questioning from Hermle, Pao confirmed that she once called former partner Trae Vassallo “untrustworthy” to her face, and that she’d heard Vassallo crying in her office over the comment.
Hermle also revealed emails Pao had apparently sent to her managers, with bullet points for each item on which Pao thought Vassallo could improve. In one email to her mentor, famed VC John Doerr, Pao wrote of Vassallo, “Let me know when you think I’ve overstepped, but I think I have to break some glass to make it happen, and I’m not afraid to do it.”
The attacks on Pao’s character are at the heart of Kleiner’s strategy to show that her lack of advancement at the firm was not due to gender discrimination but to Pao herself. Throughout the morning, Hermle tried to show that Pao’s managers had tried to help Pao move past a failed relationship with a coworker; that Pao herself had conflicts with many colleagues during her tenure; and that she was willfully misinterpreting events to prop up her lawsuit.
Pao Emails Point to Inconsistencies
Under questioning from her own lawyers this week, Pao portrayed Kleiner Perkins as a workplace where complaints fell upon deaf ears regardless of how many times they were raised, and where internal processes could not be depended upon to effect a much-needed change of culture within the company.
But Hermle produced an email trail in court today that suggested Pao herself failed to heed attempts to help her navigate past a tumultuous relationship with a co-worker.
In her lawsuit, Pao alleged that Kleiner managing partner Ray Lane pushed her into having lunch with a former colleague, Ajit Nazre. Pao had had an affair with Nazre, whom she claims retaliated against her when the relationship ended. In mid-2007, Pao previously testified, Lane asked her to have lunch with Nazre to help them move past the conflict. During that lunch, Pao said, Nazre accosted her, telling her he loved her and then following her to her car in the parking lot, which made Pao uncomfortable.
Let me know when you think I’ve overstepped, but I think I have to break some glass to make it happen, and I’m not afraid to do it. Ellen Pao
But Hermle presented an email that showed Pao herself had asked Nazre out to that infamous lunch. In other emails sent by Pao to Nazre from later in the day after the lunch, Pao used warm and friendly language. “You really are amazing at what you do and you shouldn’t let anyone take that away from you. You’re the only person in the office…who gives me consistent, productive feedback,” Pao wrote.
Pao also confirmed under questioning that she had to conveyed to Doerr that she could continue to have a professional and collegiate relationship with Nazre. “It’s a real honor to be thought of as your surrogate daughter,” Pao wrote in one email to Doerr, adding that she was sorry she didn’t live up to the distinction.
“Did you mean you didn’t live up to it by having a relationship with a coworker?” Hermle asked Pao. Pao said she did not recall.
Pao Dissatisfied
In her cross-exam, Hermle also sought to establish that Pao was often dissatisfied at work. In discussing one piece of evidence, Pao’s 2009 self-review, Pao previously testified that Doerr asked for a revision because he found it “too self-promotional.” But in an email Doerr sent to Pao, he wrote, “In several places I sense resentment in your self-review.”
Hermle also tried to show that Pao had rocky relationships with several of her coworkers, and often complained about them to managers. She suggested Pao had arguments with assistants over being late, and resented coworkers for personal time off if that meant she had to pick up the extra work.
In her suit, Pao alleged that a more senior colleague, Randy Komisar, had inappropriately given her what she described as an erotic book of poetry on Valentine’s Day, Leonard Cohen’s “Book of Longing.” Pao also alleged that Komisar invited her out to dinner when his wife was out of town.
Hermle called Pao’s interpretation of the incident into question, establishing that Komisar had not made any advances toward Pao before the incident, and never made any advances after it. Pao admitted that Komisar may not have read the book or known that it was sexual in nature, and the invitation to dinner could have been a benign, friendly gesture that she misinterpreted. Pao conceded that she did not recount the incident to an internal investigator Kleiner had hired to look into her allegations of gender bias at the firm in early 2012.
Pao was terminated from Kleiner Perkins in October 2012. Her suit alleges that her managers passed her over for promotion while letting her less-qualified male peers advance. She also claims when she raised her concerns about an offensive boy’s club culture at the firm, and that she was penalized for complaining. The trial, now into its twelfth day, has captivated Silicon Valley, where women are still in the distinct minority despite efforts to increase diversity.
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