Apparently Lynne Hermle isn't the only one who can make people unhappy.

Hermle is the attorney defending Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers against a gender discrimination suit brought by former partner Ellen Pao. She has a reputation for being so tough she reportedly once made a rival attorney throw up. But in her cross-exam today, Hermle convincingly established that Pao herself had once made a colleague cry.

Under questioning from Hermle, Pao confirmed that she once called former partner Trae Vassallo "untrustworthy" to her face, and that she’d heard Vassallo crying in her office over the comment.

Hermle also revealed emails Pao had apparently sent to her managers, with bullet points for each item on which Pao thought Vassallo could improve. In one email to her mentor, famed VC John Doerr, Pao wrote of Vassallo, "Let me know when you think I’ve overstepped, but I think I have to break some glass to make it happen, and I’m not afraid to do it."

Kleiner's Plan of Attack

The attacks on Pao's character are at the heart of Kleiner's strategy to show that her lack of advancement at the firm was not due to gender discrimination but to Pao herself. Throughout the morning, Hermle tried to show that Pao's managers had tried to help Pao move past a failed relationship with a coworker; that Pao herself had conflicts with many colleagues during her tenure; and that she was willfully misinterpreting events to prop up her lawsuit.

In that suit, Pao described an offsite meeting the the firm held in 2011 in which she alleges she had been relegated to the back row and humiliatingly asked to take notes by a managing partner.

The incident was meant to be evocative: a symptom of a deeply entrenched culture within the firm that systemically put women down while promoting the men. But under cross-examination by Hermle, Pao admitted that on the first day of the off-site, she sat in the front row. It was on a different day that Pao says she was asked to sit in the back row and document the meeting.

Pao Emails Point to Inconsistencies

Under questioning from her own lawyers this week, Pao portrayed Kleiner Perkins as a workplace where complaints fell upon deaf ears regardless of how many times they were raised, and where internal processes could not be depended upon to effect a much-needed change of culture within the company.

But Hermle produced an email trail in court today that suggested Pao herself failed to heed attempts to help her navigate past a tumultuous relationship with a co-worker.

In her lawsuit, Pao alleged that Kleiner managing partner Ray Lane pushed her into having lunch with a former colleague, Ajit Nazre. Pao had had an affair with Nazre, whom she claims retaliated against her when the relationship ended. In mid-2007, Pao previously testified, Lane asked her to have lunch with Nazre to help them move past the conflict. During that lunch, Pao said, Nazre accosted her, telling her he loved her and then following her to her car in the parking lot, which made Pao uncomfortable.

Let me know when you think I’ve overstepped, but I think I have to break some glass to make it happen, and I’m not afraid to do it. Ellen Pao

But Hermle presented an email that showed Pao herself had asked Nazre out to that infamous lunch. In other emails sent by Pao to Nazre from later in the day after the lunch, Pao used warm and friendly language. “You really are amazing at what you do and you shouldn’t let anyone take that away from you. You’re the only person in the office…who gives me consistent, productive feedback,” Pao wrote.

Pao also confirmed under questioning that she had to conveyed to Doerr that she could continue to have a professional and collegiate relationship with Nazre. “It’s a real honor to be thought of as your surrogate daughter,” Pao wrote in one email to Doerr, adding that she was sorry she didn’t live up to the distinction.

“Did you mean you didn’t live up to it by having a relationship with a coworker?” Hermle asked Pao. Pao said she did not recall.

Pao Dissatisfied

In her cross-exam, Hermle also sought to establish that Pao was often dissatisfied at work. In discussing one piece of evidence, Pao’s 2009 self-review, Pao previously testified that Doerr asked for a revision because he found it “too self-promotional.” But in an email Doerr sent to Pao, he wrote, “In several places I sense resentment in your self-review.”

Hermle tried to show that Pao had rocky relationships with several of her coworkers, and often complained about them to managers. She suggested Pao had arguments with assistants over being late, and resented coworkers for personal time off if that meant she had to pick up the extra work.

In her suit, Pao alleged that a more senior colleague, Randy Komisar, had inappropriately given her what she described as an erotic book of poetry on Valentine’s Day, Leonard Cohen’s "Book of Longing." Pao also alleged that Komisar invited her out to dinner when his wife was out of town.

Hermle called Pao’s interpretation of the incident into question, establishing that Komisar had not made any advances toward Pao before the incident, and never made any advances after it. Pao admitted that Komisar may not have read the book or known that it was sexual in nature, and the invitation to dinner could have been a benign, friendly gesture that she misinterpreted. Pao conceded that she did not recount the incident to an internal investigator Kleiner had hired to look into her allegations of gender bias at the firm in early 2012.

The Board Seat

Pao has claimed that a maternity leave caused her not to get a seat on the board of RPX, a patent company Pao says she championed and brought to Kleiner Perkins. But emails displayed in court showed Pao’s enthusiastic support for Randy Komisar, a more senior partner who eventually took the seat. Komisar, in turn, advocated for Pao to be the junior partner on the deal, in which she would become a board observer. Hermle argued this situation remained the same regardless of Pao’s maternity leave.

Under cross-exam, Hermle got Pao to admit that she stirred up conflict by telling Komisar that the RPX board members “hated him.” “As junior partner, you were there not just to help Komisar, but to help the firm—not to create conflict. Wouldn’t John Doerr agree?” Hermle asked. Pao agreed, and confirmed that Doerr had to mediate the conflict between RPX and Komisar. After the incident, Pao stopped attending RPX meetings.

Pao was terminated from Kleiner Perkins in October 2012. Her suit alleges that her managers passed her over for promotion while letting her less-qualified male peers advance. She also claims when she raised her concerns about an offensive boy's club culture at the firm, and that she was penalized for complaining. The trial, now into its twelfth day, has captivated Silicon Valley, where women are still in the distinct minority despite efforts to increase diversity.