Zachary D. Clopton

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

zachary clopton

Zachary D. Clopton is a Professor of Law Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Prior to joining Northwestern, Clopton was as an Associate Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and a Public Law Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago and worked in the national security group at Wilmer Hale in Washington, D.C. Professor Clopton’s recent scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Michigan Law Review, California Law Review, and Cornell Law Review, among others. His public writing has appeared in Slate, Politico, The Hill, and others.

Posts by Zachary D. Clopton

Interlocutory Appeals and State Sponsors of Terrorism

In a decision only lawyers could love, the Second Circuit held on September 3, 2024, that it lacked appellate jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal by the Republic of Sudan brought in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) arising out of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  The key issue is when the state-sponsored terrorism exception to…

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Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc in Cassirer

The legal saga surrounding the Cassirer family’s attempt to reclaim a Camille Pissarro painting seized by the Nazis has taken another step. Litigation in Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation has bounced among the Central District of California, the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of the United States. (For more coverage…

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Successor Jurisdiction and Anti-Terrorism Litigation

Transnational litigation often presents tricky questions of personal jurisdiction. Ongoing litigation in New York arising out of rocket attacks by Hizbollah does so in spades. This post reviews the recent New York Court of Appeals decision in Lelchook v. Société Générale de Banque au Liban SAL, answering a certified question posed by the Second Circuit…

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