Zachary Clopton
Professor of Law
Associate Dean of Academic Programs

Phone
(312) 503-5063
SSRN Author Page | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Related Links
High-Res Photo
Assistant
Jane Brock
Assistant Phone
(312) 503-8544
Assistant Email
janebrock@law.northwestern.edu
Biography
Zachary D. Clopton joined Northwestern Pritzker School of Law as a Professor of Law in 2019. His research and teaching interests include civil procedure, complex litigation, and international litigation. In 2023, Clopton was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He also was selected as the Reporter for the Seventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions and as a member of the American Law Institute.
Clopton clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago and he worked in the national security group at Wilmer Hale in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Northwestern, Clopton was as an Associate Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. He also was a Public Law Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.
Areas of Expertise
- Arbitration
- Civil Procedure
- National Security
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- International Law
- Environmental Law
Courses
Selected Publications
- MDL as Category, 105 Cornell Law Review 1297 (2020).
- National Injunctions and Preclusion, 117 Michigan Law Review (forthcoming 2019).
- Diagonal Public Enforcement, 70 Stanford Law Review 1077 (2018).
- Procedural Retrenchment and the States, 106 California Law Review 411 (2018).
- Making State Civil Procedure, 104 Cornell Law Review 1 (2018).
- Redundant Public-Private Enforcement, 69 Vanderbilt Law Review 285 (2016).
Education
- BA, Yale University
- MPhil, University of Cambridge
- JD, Harvard Law School
Prior Appointments
- Assistant Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
- Associate Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
- Public Law Fellow, University of Chicago Law School
- Associate Dean of Curriculum, Feb 2023, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law