California Woman Appeals Gender Bias Verdict

SAN FRANCISCO — A woman at the center of a high-profile gender bias lawsuit against an elite Silicon Valley venture capital firm filed an appeal on Monday of a jury verdict against her. Alan Exelrod, an attorney for plaintiff Ellen Pao, filed the two-page notice of appeal in San Francisco Superior Court. A jury in March found that defendant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers did not discriminate or retaliate against Pao in the case that became a flashpoint in an ongoing discussion about gender inequity at elite technology and venture capital firms, where women are grossly underrepresented. Pao’s attorneys said she was an accomplished junior partner who was passed over for a promotion because the firm used different standards to judge men and women, and that she was fired when she complained about discrimination.