His research and teaching interests include civil procedure, complex litigation, international business transactions and litigation, and national security law. 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. He also served as a Public Law Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School before joining Cornell Law School. His recent scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, California Law Review, and Cornell Law Review, among others. Clopton earned a BA from Yale University, an MPhil in International Relations from Cambridge University, where he was a Gates Foundation Scholar, and a JD from Harvard Law School.