Northwestern School of Law Dean Daniel Rodriguez will serve a one-year term as president of the Association of American Law Schools, the University announced Monday.

The AALS, which comprises 176 law schools nationwide, is a nonprofit educational society for law teachers as well as the primary representative of the country’s law schools to the federal government and other academic organizations. Rodriguez served on the group’s executive committee from 2009 to 2011.

“Legal education is at a crossroads, and those of us principally involved in legal education must think creatively and strategically about how best to assure that we are serving the objectives of our profession and managing rapid change,” Rodriguez said in a news release. “I look forward to working with my AALS colleagues and all legal educators on many interesting initiatives and on improving the nation’s law schools.”

Rodriguez succeeds University of California, Hastings Prof. Leo Martinez. He will be inaugurated during the association’s annual meetings, scheduled for Jan. 2-5, 2014 in New York City.

—Joseph Diebold