Kleiner Perkins Seeks Nearly $1 Million From Ellen Pao
By DAVID STREITFELD

SAN FRANCISCO — Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm, is offering a new deal to the former associate who unsuccessfully sued the firm, accusing it of gender discrimination: Promise not to pursue this case any further or pay us $1 million.

The offer was made in papers filed this week in California Superior Court in San Francisco. The firm said the case, which drew an abundance of unfavorable attention to its inner workings and the fate of women in Silicon Valley, cost it $972,815 in witness fees, deposition and court reporter costs.

As the winning party, Kleiner is asking the former associate, Ellen Pao, to reimburse it for these bills. But if she forgoes any appeal and lets the case die, the firm will forgive and forget, or at least move on.

“We believe that women in technology would be best served by having all parties focus on making progress on the issues of gender diversity outside of continued litigation,” said Christina Lee, a Kleiner spokeswoman.

A jury at the end of March rejected all of Ms. Pao’s claims. Legal fees, which must have been considerable on both sides, are not on the table.

Ms. Pao’s chief lawyer, Alan Exelrod, did not return a call for comment. Ms. Pao has not said whether she will pursue an appeal, and the grounds on which she would do so are uncertain.

The judge in the case, Harold Kahn, made no obvious rulings that seemed to favor the defense. If anything, the opposite was true. He declined to allow testimony about Ms. Pao’s husband, Alphonse Fletcher Jr., whose hedge fund is bankrupt.

Debra S. Katz, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who specializes in gender discrimination suits, said Kleiner sounded a little punitive.

“If Kleiner wanted to look classy, it could have said, ‘This was hard fought and we obviously disagree with your view, but it’s in the interest of all parties to walk away. In the meantime, there have been lessons learned and we are going to fund organizations that focus on glass ceiling issues,’ ” Ms. Katz said.

The vast majority of the fees Kleiner is trying to recover are for witnesses. The fees for Paul Gompers, a professor at Harvard Business School, were $92,700, the filing says.

Other court filings revealed that last November, Kleiner had offered Ms. Pao $964,502 to settle, an amount based on the projected costs of the case.

By making that offer, Kleiner can now ask for witness fees, which unlike deposition fees are not normally recoverable. Ms. Pao never responded, although she might wish she had.

矽谷性別歧視案 鮑康如前東家：上訴就索賠

美國創投公司「凱鵬華盈」華裔前主管鮑康如，控告前東家性別歧視阻礙晉升，三月底被判敗訴。凱鵬華盈上周向舊金山的加州最高法院提案，要求鮑康如承諾不再上訴，否則將索賠近一百萬美元訴訟費用。鮑康如的律師團隊還在考慮是否接受。

凱鵬華盈表示，此案引發外界對公司內部工作及矽谷女性的關注，造成不利影響，導致公司在證人、證詞及法院書記官方面花費九十七萬三千美元（約台幣三千零一十九萬元）。凱鵬華盈表示，若鮑康如放棄上訴，公司將盡釋前嫌，不會追討這筆錢。

鮑康如控告凱鵬華盈案件廣受全美媒體報導，被稱為指標性訴訟，主因為凱鵬華盈是全球最具影響力的創投公司。鮑康如控訴前東家因性別而未晉升她，她自稱2012年投訴後遭解雇，但公司表示鮑康如工作表現不佳才被炒。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/david-petraeus-to-be-sentenced-in-leak-investigation.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytstyle.com/culture/20150424/tc24kleiner/zh-hant/

2015-04-26．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯陳韻涵