It’s somewhat ironic to me that Ellen Pao has become the poster child in the debate about women in Silicon Valley and American business in general. I say that because she is someone who by almost every measure has had a super-successful life and career, and also has serious potential flaws as a plaintiff. But does any of that matter as the jury gets ready to decide the case? Let’s take a look.
Imagine if I described this person to you: A young woman who is the daughter of Chinese immigrants who goes to Princeton and graduates with a degree in electrical engineering, and then goes to Harvard and gets both a law degree and an MBA. She works at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, arguably the most high-powered law firm in the country. Now stop right there. Already by any measure this person is in the most select, super-elite group of all Americans. But wait there’s more. She then joins Kleiner Perkins, perhaps the most high-powered venture capital firm in the country. She also joins the board of Flipboard, a hot start-up and then becomes interim CEO of Reddit, a high-profile tech company. Along the way she marries a Harvard-educated hedge fund manager and has a baby daughter. This is a victim? How is that even possible?
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Then there’s Ellen Pao’s flaws. That Harvard-educated husband, Buddy Fletcher, ran a hedge fund that is now bankrupt and he stands accused of civil fraud. (Fletcher has also been involved in other high-profile litigation as well.) It has been suggested that the couple is in need of money. Suing an employer for discrimination is one way to get money. It’s also a fact that Pao had an affair with a married partner at Kleiner. Pao alleges that the partner, Ajit Nazre, retaliated against her. That sounds messy.
So here we have a super-successful person who maybe needs money and who had an affair at work saying she was discriminated against. Is that even possible? In a word, yes. All of what I just described is simply irrelevant if Kleiner Perkins discriminated against Pao because of her gender, end of story, full stop. It’s also the case that all of what I described may be true AND she is a victim. Cases like this are seldom cut and dry. That’s why they go to trial. Was Ellen Pao the victim of discrimination? That’s what the jury must decide. All the rest is noise.
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