Kleiner Perkins to Make New Arbitration Bid in High-Profile Silicon Valley Sex-Discrimination Case

In a ruling that may be revisited, a California judge has nixed a Silicon Valley venture capital firm’s effort to arbitrate a high-profile sex-discrimination suit brought by a former BigLaw associate with sterling credentials.Although Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had said, in a motion filed last month, that the operating agreement for the entity for which junior partner Ellen Pao works has an express arbitration clause, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn disagreed. He found there was no arbitration agreement, but said his ruling was tentative, the Recorder reports.However, the judge is allowing the firm to refile its motion to compel arbitration and include new arguments after another hearing Tuesday, according to the Business Insider and a statement provided to the ABA Journal by a spokeswoman for the venture capital firm.It says Kleiner Perkins plans to file by July 13 a motion making third-party beneficiary and equitable estoppel arguments for arbitration. “KPCB continues to believe it has strong arguments and precedent to move the matter to arbitration,” the statement says. “Ms. Pao, like other partners, signed a variety of standard agreements requiring, among other things, that all disputes be resolved through arbitration.”A supplemental hearing on the new arguments is… Read full this story

Kleiner Perkins to Make New Arbitration Bid in High-Profile Silicon Valley Sex-Discrimination Case have 309 words, post on www.abajournal.com at July 10, 2012. This is cached page on Law Breaking News. If you want remove this page, please contact us.