The chief jus­tice of Colorado’s Supreme Court will retire in Jan­u­ary, he announced Wednes­day, and the state’s high­est court will change the way the lead­er­ship role is han­dled in the future.

Chief Jus­tice Nathan Coats will leave the job when he turns 72, which is the man­dat­ed retire­ment age set by Colorado’s Con­sti­tu­tion. He’s been the court’s chief jus­tice since 2018.

With his depar­ture, the state Supreme Court will estab­lish a set term length for the job of chief jus­tice — pre­vi­ous­ly, a chief jus­tice could stay in the role for as long as he or she want­ed, and as long as the chief jus­tice main­tained the sup­port of the oth­er justices.

Now, the posi­tion will rotate through the jus­tices on a set basis, said Jon Sarche, a spokesman for the Col­orado Judi­cial Depart­ment. The jus­tices have not yet decid­ed how long that term will be, but have select­ed the first two jus­tices who will fill the role after Coats’ retirement.

Jus­tice Bri­an Boa­tright will be the court’s next chief jus­tice, and he will be fol­lowed by Jus­tice Mon­i­ca Mar­quez, Sarche said in a news release.

Boa­tright has been on the state Supreme Court since 2011, and pre­vi­ous­ly served as a dis­trict court judge in the First Judi­cial Dis­trict, as well as as a pros­e­cu­tor. In a news release Wednes­day, Boa­tright said he will focus on help­ing tri­al courts and pro­ba­tion depart­ments nav­i­gate COVID-19 once he takes over as chief justice.

The process to fill Coats’ seat on the court will begin lat­er this year.