Ellen Pao must pay Kleiner $276k in legal costs

Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Judge rules new price portion for Ellen Pao's discrimination case Ellen Pao may get a substantial break on the pricey legal bill her four-week gender bias trial amassed. Judge Harold Kahn tentatively ruled Wednesday that Pao, a former junior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, owes the company $276,000.

SAN FRANCISCO—Ellen Pao will have to pay $275,966 in costs for her failed discrimination and retaliation case against her former employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, or about a quarter of what the company had asked for.

On Wednesday, Judge Harold Kahn issued a tentative ruling on the issue of costs incurred by Kleiner.

Pao lost her case charging gender discrimination and retaliation against Kleiner on March 27.

As was its legal right, on April 23, Kleiner asked that Pao repay $972,814 in costs for expert fees, depositions, transcription and travel for expert witnesses it had incurred during the trial.

Last week, Pao filed a reply in San Francisco Superior Court, saying she should not have to pay Kleiner's "gargantuan and unreasonable charges."

Kahn on Wednesday weighed in with a ruling that "granted in part and denied in part" both sides.

In a five-page document very reminiscent of his dry wit during the five-week long trial, Kahn went through each of Pao's requests.

Kahn allowed most of the costs Kleiner has listed in its initial filing, including for jury food ($177.56), filing and motion fees ($240) and technology equipment rental ($7,196.)

However, he noted that under the Fair Employment and Housing Act , the court must consider the economic resources of both sides and "scale" them so as to be fair.

While noting that Pao "is not indigent," Kahn also said that Kleiner has "vastly" greater economic resources than she does.

Because of that, he scaled back the costs of Kleiner's expert witnesses to be more in line with those that Pao hired and then charged her that amount.

That reduced the costs Pao must repay to Kleiner from about $970,000 to closer to $275,000, though Kahn at the end of his ruling noted, "The parties are urged to check my math."

In a statement, Kleiner's communications partner Christina Lee said the firm was pleased with the result.

"This tentative ruling recognizes that our settlement offer was reasonable and made in good faith. It also recognizes the cost rules still apply when a plaintiff refuses a reasonable settlement offer and forces the parties to go through an expensive trial," she said

Pao, now interim CEO at the online forum Reddit, declined to comment.

The hearing will be held on Thursday.