Of course they can defend themselves in public. Corporations engage PR firms to manage that expertly for them all the time. And ironically, whether this goes to trial or not, the worse the objective case for Github the more confident you can be that their lawyers will be telling them to say little or nothing. Expect a very bland statement to appear shortly about how much they love and value their female employees. We may well also have statements from other female employees about how happy they are at Github - these may well be given 'off the record' without attribution as in "A female employee who did not want to be identified told me she has never been happier than she is at Github, surrounded as she is by sensitive colleagues and a supportive management." :)