Daniel B. Rodriguez

Daniel B. Rodriguez was appointed Dean and Harold Washington Professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in January 2012. 

A nationally prominent law teacher and scholar, Rodriguez’s principal academic work is in the areas of administrative law, local government law, and constitutional law. He is a leader in the application of political economy to the study of public law and has authored or co-authored a series of influential articles and book chapters in this vein. He also has a special interest in the law-business-technology interface and its impact on the future of legal education. 

Additionally, Rodriguez has served in various professional leadership roles. He is a past president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and he is currently a council member of the American Law Institute and on the Board of Directors of the American Bar Foundation. Rodriguez is also a member of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services.

Prior to joining Northwestern Law, Rodriguez served as Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas-Austin; as a Research Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; as Dean and Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law; and, as a Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. In addition, he has been a visiting professor at Columbia University, University of Southern California, University of Illinois, and at the Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Rodriguez received his law degree from Harvard in 1987 and his undergraduate degree from the California State University of Long Beach, where he is a recipient of the school’s distinguished alumnus award. After graduating from law school, Rodriguez clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.