Charles Hamilton Houston III is an experienced litigator, having managed high-volume premises liability and security cases for a multinational retailer in state and federal court. Mr. Houston has conducted trial, arbitration, and mediation proceedings, and he has taken depositions of plaintiffs, experts, and fact witnesses. His experience includes the development of strategy for case resolution and making recommendations regarding the merits and proposed resolutions of cases directly to national in-house counsel. Mr. Houston was named as one of the Nation’s Best Advocates: 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the National Bar Association and IMPACT (2010).

Mr. Houston earned a B.A. in German from Loyola University and a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law.  He was a Dean’s List Student at Loyola and was awarded a Full Tuition and Fees Scholarship by the University of Texas.  Mr. Houston also studied abroad at the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. After law school, he served for two years as Senior Law Clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Prior to joining Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan, Mr. Houston ran his own commercial litigation firm in Phoenix, The Law Office of Charles Hamilton Houston III, P.L.L.C. His experience includes practicing commercial litigation with Fennemore Craig, where he chaired the firm’s Minority Writing Internship Program, taught the firm’s Summer Associate Writing Workshop, and served as a mentor to numerous law students. Mr. Houston is also a former partner of Thomas, Thomas & Markson, where he represented a multinational retailer in tort litigation and practiced insurance defense, while maintaining his commercial litigation practice.

Like his grandfather, noted civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston, Mr. Houston is devoted to the philosophy of justice, access, and equality for all.  Mr. Houston frequently travels, lectures, and serves as a panelist on issues related to his practice as well as the impact of the work done by his pioneering grandfather.  Over the years, he has volunteered his time and legal services to the Voting Rights Act Commission and survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Most recently, Mr. Houston served as Chairman of the 5th Annual Thurgood Marshall College Fund Brunch.

Mr. Houston is admitted to practice in Arizona; Texas; the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the Eastern District of Michigan, the Northern District of Texas; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits. Mr. Houston’s professional memberships include the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel; the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; the American, National, Maricopa County, and Arizona Black Bar Associations; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.; and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Houston is fluent in German. LITIGATION