Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani is pleased to announce that Kelly Drew Rooksby, Co-Managing Partner of the firm’s Spokane/Coeur d’Alene and Boise offices, has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Law at Gonzaga University School of Law. Rooksby is currently teaching the inaugural session of Deposition Skills, an intensive course designed to prepare upper-level law students for the practical demands of civil litigation.
She brings extensive trial and deposition experience to the classroom, having taken hundreds of depositions throughout a career spanning commercial litigation, employment litigation, professional liability defense, catastrophic personal injury, and intellectual property disputes. Her litigation background provides students with firsthand insight into the strategies and techniques that define effective witness examination.
“A deposition is a conversation where every question has a purpose and every answer has consequences,” said Rooksby. “Teaching students to navigate that dynamic, to listen, adapt, and control the room, is one of the most valuable things we can do to prepare them for practice.”
The Deposition Skills course emphasizes simulation-based learning, with students conducting depositions and rotating through the roles of examining attorney, defending attorney, and witness. This immersive approach reflects Rooksby’s belief that practical experience is essential to developing litigation competence.