Over the past 16 days of her high-profile lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, Ellen Pao's attorneys have sought to pick apart the legendary venture capital firm's claims that it doesn't discriminate against women. Kleiner's lawyers, meanwhile, have tried to carefully pick apart Pao.

Using witness testimony and performance reviews conducted by Kleiner before Pao was dismissed from the firm, Kleiner has worked to show that Pao herself was the problem, not her gender. The reviews called Pao "territorial." She had "sharp elbows" and was "not a team player." She "raised her voice" at times, and yet "could not own a room."

Yesterday in San Francisco Superior Court, Kleiner's lawyers kept the same line of attack. The defense called Michael Robbins of business management consulting firm EXTTI Incorporated to the witness stand. Robbins was hired by Kleiner to review its internal investigation of Pao, who had complained of gender bias at the firm. The investigation found none, and Robbins concurred with the finding.

"Her personality didn’t fit in with this particular firm," Robbins said. "Other men and women’s did. Hers didn’t."

Pao and the Problem of Pattern-Matching

Pao is suing her former employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for gender discrimination and retaliation. Pao says she was held back professionally because she is a woman while the men at the firm were promoted. She claims that when she raised complaints, she was penalized and eventually terminated. The trial, which is now in its fourth week, has captured the interest of the tech industry, where women are still very much in the minority.

Robbins said he reviewed 17 deposition transcripts and the investigation conducted by Stephen Hirschfeld, the outside investigator who found there was no gender discrimination at the firm. He described most of Hirschfeld’s judgment calls as "exactly the right thing to do" in the investigation. Pao's legal team went after that assertion, arguing that the investigation itself showed evidence of an old boys club culture at Kleiner.

Former general partner Trae Vassallo told Hirschfeld that “male bravado” held sway at Kleiner and that junior male employees gravitated toward male mentors at the firm, according to Pao's lawyer. Another female employee, Lila Ibrahim, reportedly called the atmosphere at the firm “clubbish.” And Aileen Lee, a former senior partner at the firm, claimed it was a “big deal” that women were not included during dinners at Al Gore’s apartment—an alleged exclusion Pao's team has pointed to as exemplary of Kleiner's male-dominated culture.

The descriptions were reminiscent of the way John Doerr, Pao’s longtime mentor and ex-boss, once described Kleiner's approach to deciding which companies to invest in. In 2008, Doerr said it was “very clearly male nerds who had no social or sex lives” and who were dropouts of Harvard or Stanford who were likely to succeed as some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs. "When I see that pattern coming in … it’s very easy to decide to invest," Doerr said.

The concept of "pattern-matching" is now a part of the Silicon Valley lexicon. While tech companies often claim they're merely seeking candidates who are a good fit for their workplace culture, some critics have argued that the idea of "culture fit" can be used as a euphemism for sexism and racism—and as an excuse to keep the composition of the workforce as unchanged and as monochromatic as possible.

At least one juror seemed troubled by the implications of a gendered workplace culture. "Does a macho environment equate to a discriminatory environment?” asked the anonymous juror.

Robbins, however, stuck to his view. "I don’t think so," he said. "Just as having an outsized personality or ‘owning a room’ could be male or female traits, it doesn’t matter.”

Innocent Gift Or Inappropriate Overture?

Pao’s inability to get along with coworkers was the central question in afternoon testimony from Kleiner senior partner Randy Komisar. Pao has accused Komisar of inappropriately giving her a book of erotic poetry, folk singer Leonard Cohen’s “Book of Longing,” for Valentine’s Day in 2007.

Kleiner attorney Lynne Hermle quickly sought to show that Pao had been embroiled in conflicts with many employees at the firm, including a fellow male junior partner, Chi-Hua Chien; managing partners Ray Lane and Ted Schlein; and some female coworkers, including Trae Vassallo and Angela Valles, John Doerr’s assistant. Komisar testified to spending time mentoring Pao during the early part of her career, saying he tried to help her get along with other partners at the firm. According to Komisar, he worked to show Pao that “being a partner was as important as being smart or right.”

Komisar testified that after Pao had given him two gifts for Christmas in 2007, he felt pressured to respond in kind. “I knew Ellen was quick to take slight and see the negative, and think I wasn’t reciprocating,” he said. The next major holiday was Valentine’s Day, so he planned to get her a gift for the occasion, according to his testimony.

He decided on Leonard Cohen’s “Book of Longing” after hearing a snippet on NPR that alluded to it being a Buddhist-themed book, Komisar testified, saying he and Pao had a common interest in Buddhism. His wife purchased the book, which he said he inscribed with a note but didn’t read himself. He never knew that the contents of the book were suggestive, and he testified that his relationship with Pao did not change after he had given her the gift. In fact, he said, she appeared to be more comfortable confiding in him. Komisar also denied knowingly inviting Pao to dinner when his wife was out of town, explaining the misunderstanding as a passing comment he made saying they should have had dinner one night they had both been free in the past.

Komisar said his relationship with Pao deteriorated after he took the board seat on patent-management company RPX, which Pao claims she brought into Kleiner Perkins single-handedly. “She walked into my office one day and basically said [the RPX board] hated me, and she was wondering whether I should remain on the board,” he testified.

Concerned, Komisar brought the issue to Ted Schlein, a Kleiner managing partner, and Juliet de Baubigny, who handled HR issues at the firm. De Baubigny agreed it would be better if Ellen was no longer involved with the RPX board, according to Komisar. Pao stopped coming to RPX board meetings.

To rebut Komisar’s story, Pao’s lawyer, Alan Exelrod, tried to show that Pao was able to resolve many conflicts with others at Kleiner Perkins, especially her conflicts with the female employees Komisar mentioned. Komisar said he understood they had not “resolved” their conflicts, but rather that they agreed to work together in the best way they could.

In any case, his own relationship with Pao was irreparable, Komisar testified. He said that a junior partner politicking around him and trying to get him off the board was a "betrayal of confidence" and “unforgivable.”

In response to a jury question about how hierarchy and seniority worked at Kleiner Perkins, Komisar echoed many others at the firm, explaining “interpersonal skills were key to success.”