Day Casebeer has a strong tradition of supporting pro bono projects. Here are examples of matters.

In re Buenrostro: Immigration and Deportation
Day Casebeer was appointed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to represent Jose and Virginia Buenrostro in connection with their appeal from the Immigration Court’s order of removal.

The case team successfully petitioned the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen the Buenrostro’s matter based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in their original proceeding. Second-year associate, Chris Banys, will represent the Buenrostro’s at their Immigration Court re-hearing in February, ‘06.

Office of the Santa Clara County District Attorney
A number of Day Casebeer attorneys have served as volunteer Deputy District Attorneys. Day Casebeer associates have also served as volunteer attorneys in the Office of the San Francisco County District Attorney.

BnetD: Fair Use and Copyright Licensing
Day Casebeer represents three software programmers who helped create the BnetD game server. BnetD is an open source program that allows gamers to play popular Blizzard titles like Starcraft and Warcraft online with other gamers on servers that don't belong to Blizzard's Battle.net service.

Blizzard sent a cease-and-desist letter in 2002, and the three programmers contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). After Blizzard subsequently filed suit against the programmers in Federal District Court in St. Louis, EFF contacted Partner Paul Grewal, a Day Casebeer associate at the time.

Working side-by-side with EFF, Paul and associate Richard Lin represented the programmers in discovery and pre-trial matters, including fact and expert depositions and motion practice.

After both parties filed motions for summary judgment, the St. Louis court granted summary judgment motions in Blizzard’s favor on Blizzard’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act-based circumvention and trafficking claims, and also ruled that Blizzard can enforce its End User License Agreements.

Day Casebeer and EFF have appealed the District Court’s ruling to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. With the additional help of associate Mario Moore, briefs were filed earlier this year. Because the case presents important issues of first impression concerning the relationship of copyright law and contract law, as well as the relationship between federal and state authority to regulate fair use of copyrighted material, many industry and academic groups have submitted amicus briefs. Arguments on this precedent-setting case will be held later this year.

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Creating “Payroll Damages Assistant” for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA)
Associates Brad Waugh and Geoff Godfrey have built a valuable evidence creation tool for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a non-profit legal services organization with over 20 offices throughout rural California that represents agricultural workers in wage disputes with employers.

Waugh and Godfrey created a tool to automate the process of accurately determining the amount of unpaid wages, applicable penalties, and any additional amounts owed agricultural workers by their employers . The tool, known as “Payroll Damages Assistant,” accepts entry of an employee’s work records, performs the necessary calculations, and generates exhibits for use at trial.

Brad developed the basic prototype for the tool as a student in Stanford Law School’s employment clinic. His then-advisor, Ellen Braff-Guajardo, now the statewide Project Director for CRLA’s Agricultural Worker Health Project, ultimately asked Brad and Geoff to create the more powerful version for CRLA that became “Payroll Damages Assistant.”