John Houghtaling is C4’s outside General Counsel, he advises C4 on regulatory compliance and first party insurance benefits.

 

Houghtaling is a first party insurance litigator and entrepreneur.   He is majority shareholder of Gauthier Murphy & Houghtaling, a law firm with a 46 year old legacy that paved the way to the $365 Billion U.S. tobacco settlement, and won settlements and verdicts in an additional $4.7 Billion.   

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Houghtaling has been a national litigator in every major storm since he was appointed special counsel by the Attorney General of Louisiana in the multi-billion dollar litigation of policyholder rights in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.    In the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey, IRMA, and Maria, he continues to speak nationally to contractors, insurance adjusters, and to advise clients, and state and federal officials.   

 

In 2015, Frontline aired an hour long documentary in PBS which told the story of how Houghtaling represented thousands of storm victims in lawsuits against FEMA in Superstorm Sandy.  As court appointed co-liaison Counsel, Houghtaling uncovered widespread fraud within the FEMA Flood Insurance program.  Houghtaling’s disclosures led to a national insurance scandal that included federal fraud hearings, multiple congressional hearings in Washington in the House and Senate.  In the fallout, the head of the NFIP admitted on 60 Minutes that third party federal contractors committed fraud to underpay Houghtaling’s clients.  Houghtaling’s victory forced FEMA to reopen over 144,000 additional storm victim claims.  The insurance scandal lead to an unprecedented fine against the largest insurer in NFIP and led to the arrest of a key insurance executive by the Attorney General of New York.  In the aftermath, the litigation led by Houghtaling’s team caused the federal flood program to pay over a billion dollars in underpayments to victims, defense costs and additional fees for the re-adjusting of claims.

 

Houghtaling’s career has appeared in more than 200 print and TV media stories including  CNN, Fox Business News, the New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today, MSNBC, and his career has been the feature of two feature length documentaries.  One of Houghtaling’s cases against a US multi-billionaire served as the basis for the Hollywood Legal Thriller, staring Anthony Hopkins and Al Pacino, as New Orleans litigator.

 

In 2014 Academy Award winning director Morgan Spurlock filmed a CNN documentary profiling Houghtaling’s career as a lawyer and entrepreneur, as he fought for storm victims and simultaneously founded an oil and gas company that CNN predicted could make him a billionaire.   On November 9, 2017 it was announced that Houghtaling signed a $26 Billion dollar gas deal with China, in the presence of President Donald Trump and President Xi Jing Ping.  Houghtaling’s deal was the largest US to China gas deal in History.

 

John W. Houghtaling, II

Gauthier Murphy & Houghtaling