“We look forward to clearing our name in court,” said Christina Lee, a Kleiner spokeswoman.

Ms. Pao did not respond to a request for comment left with her lawyer, Alan B. Exelrod.

Image John Doerr, a successful investor, was Ms. Pao’s boss. Credit... Araya Diaz/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Her original complaint, filed in May 2012, has already become part of Silicon Valley lore. It said that a Kleiner partner did not invite her or any other women to an important dinner because “women kill the buzz”; that another Kleiner partner inappropriately gave her Leonard Cohen’s sex-drenched “Book of Longing”; and that this same partner told her “the personalities of women” did not lead to success at Kleiner “because women are quiet.”

A Princeton-trained engineer and Harvard-trained lawyer who has deep experience in the technology field, Ms. Pao first came under media scrutiny when she married Alphonse Fletcher Jr. in 2007, after her affair with the colleague, Ajit Nazre, ended. Mr. Fletcher, a financier, has a history of both suing and being sued. His hedge fund is bankrupt and pension funds are suing to recover their investments amid accusations of fraud.

Mr. Fletcher’s reversals appear in Kleiner’s trial brief, presumably to imply that the couple has serious financial needs and that might be the underlying reason for her suit. The brief reprints the text messages from the breakup of her affair (“I can’t believe I was so wrong about you”), cites her lackluster evaluations (“not sure I really trust her motivations”) and dismisses her claims:

“Pao’s complaints that she did not sit in the front row at a meeting, was not sitting at a table during an event, her office was not in ‘the power corridor’ (whatever that means), she was not included on someone’s interview schedule, she was asked to take notes during a meeting — among many, many others — are simply not even close to being adverse employment actions sufficient to constitute retaliation.”

Some things are not intended for public consumption, however. In another filing, Kleiner’s lawyers said how it managed its investment funds was a trade secret, and asked that the courtroom be closed during any discussion of the details.

Ms. Pao is interim chief executive of Reddit, the news commentary website, which has also been drawn into the case. An anonymous Reddit employee sent a letter to Kleiner’s legal team, asking them to subpoena Reddit employees “for information regarding conflicts with Ellen Pao.” Such information could support the defense’s contention that the person really undermining Ms. Pao at Kleiner was Ms. Pao.

The danger in a no-holds-barred approach, of course, is that it also serves to tarnish Kleiner, which in its dot-com glory days used discretion to help perpetuate its mystique. Kleiner made fortunes in Netscape, Genentech, Amazon and Google, but has not had a huge name-brand hit recently.