The NIU College of Law will use its summer to search for a permanent dean to replace the one-year interim dean who will to take charge Sunday.

A search committee is looking for candidates to replace interim dean, said law professor Daniel Reynolds. Reynolds was a member of an original unsuccessful search committee to replace Leonard P. Strickman, who ends his reign as law dean Sunday.

Strickman is going to the University of California, San Francisco, in July to teach law for the fall semester. He plans to return to NIU in January to teach.

Strickman said it is important for the NIU’s law school to experience a renewal of leadership. Strickman has held the position of dean for eight years.

The leading candidate to replace Strickman has accepted a position as a law dean at a Wisconsin university.

Reynolds said he will “essentially be minding the store,” while an appointed committee conducts a national search for a new dean.

The new search committee, headed by Provost Kendall Baker, will be composed of five law school faculty members, including David Gaebler, Malcom Morris, Mark Cordes, Larraine Schmall and Tom Woxland.

Gaebler said an alumni representative from the law college, a law student and possibly a practicing judge or attorney will be elected by the faculty to sit on the search committee.

Reynolds said he plans to continue the momemtum the faculty has set. “The main task of the college next year is to find a new permanent dean who is going to carry the school forward,” he said.