San Francisco, CA – Silicon Valley based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) today unequivocally denied the accusations of its partner Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination lawsuit, saying it was her own performance that kept her from advancing at the firm reported AllThingsD.com in an article Wednesday.

Pao had said she was a victim of sexual harassment by Ajit Nazre, a former Kleiner Perkins investment partner who left the firm last year. Pao also said retaliation continued after she complained about sexual harassment to the highest level of management of KPCB.

John Doerr, partner at the firm KPCB recently responded publicly to the serious allegations raised in the sex-discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed earlier this month by Kleiner Investment Partner Ellen Pao.

According to AllThingsD.com, the firm alleged in its response:

• Pao’s relationship with former partner Ajit Nazre was consensual.
• She had not brought up complaints about discrimination or harassment over the past five years until engaging legal representation late last year.
• Pao had bad performance reviews.
• An outside investigator did a thorough investigation of Kleiner Perkins’ treatment of women earlier this year and found Pao’s claims to have no merit.

According to the article, the firm also says Pao had recently contractually agreed to arbitration and a non-disparagement, so she broke that agreement by filing the lawsuit. Thus, the firm says Pao has “unclean hands.”

The complaints about Pao’s performance are detailed at length in the filing which was due Wednesday.

A hearing is set for July 10.