Former venture capitalist Ellen Pao is not giving up her fight against former employer investment firm Kleiner Perkins, which she sued over allegations of sexism and gender discrimination.
Though she ultimately lost the case after a five-week trial, Pao is appealing the judge’s decision that she should pay roughly $276,000 of Kleiner’s legal fees, according to a document filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Monday. In mid-June, Judge Harold Kahn awarded the venture capital firm part of the original costs it sought of nearly $1 million, arguing that along with lack of justification on Kleiner’s part for some of the costs, the total sum would be much more financially burdensome to Pao than to Kleiner.
In 2012, after seven years at the firm, Pao filed a lawsuit in which she claimed her then-employer had denied her promotions because of her gender, ignored her complaints of discrimination, and ultimately fired her for complaining and filing a lawsuit. After a lengthy trial in the spring of 2015, Pao lost the case on all counts, though she sparked a national conversation around diversity in Silicon Valley. Kleiner has offered to drop its request for legal fees if she agrees to not appeal the case while Pao has said she will wave her appeal in exchange for $2.7 million, according to legal filings.
At the time, Pao was the interim CEO of online news aggregator and forum Reddit, though she recently resigned for reasons unrelated to the case.