The woman behind a Silicon Valley sex discrimination case spent under fire from an attorney trying to sink her multi-million-dollar case against a top venture capital firm.
Ellen Pao tightened her lips at times as she concisely and carefully responded to Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers attorney Lynne Hermle, who worked to expose flaws in a scenario painted by Pao during the previous two days in a more amicable fashion during direct examination by her lawyer.
Legal insiders maintain that it is important for Pao to win the trust of jurors who will decide whether being a woman resulted in her being harassed at KPCB and her career path there blocked.
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The civil trial launched here last month pits an iconic venture capital firm against an employee shown the door not long after her affair with a married partner.
A jury is being asked, essentially, to decide whether the suit filed by 45-year-old Pao is a stand against a "boys' club" atmosphere at KPCB or a money grab by an employee who lacked the skills to join the rarified ranks of Silicon Valley venture capitalists.
Pao lawsuit asks for $16 million in pay she contends she would have made if she had not fired from KPCB in late 2012, six months after she filed her lawsuit.
Judge Harold Kahn is expected to rule Thursday regarding whether KPCB lawyers can show jurors evidence that Pao is in financial difficulty.
KPCB wants to let the jury know that it may be money and not a quest for gender-equity that is behind Pao's lawsuit.
Pao, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was asked about her motive by her attorney, and said on the stand that she was in court because she wanted her story to be heard.
Pao's complaints include being snubbed at a celebratory work dinner on the apparent basis that "women kill the buzz." She also told of enduring bawdy conversation by male co-workers.
