A Lawyer and His Wiener Doge Must Be Separated, Phantom Argues in Meme Coin Lawsuit

You may love WIENER DOGE. You may live for WIENER DOGE. But you cannot create WIENER DOGE, and then represent a group of plaintiffs in a lawsuit centered on an alleged theft of WIENER DOGE—that’s, at least, according to a new legal filing. 

In April, the creator of a Solana meme coin called WIENER DOGE (ever heard of it?) sued the popular crypto wallet Phantom, claiming that flaws in the wallet’s design led directly to the theft of over $500,000 worth of the token. Now, Phantom’s attorneys are hitting back, arguing in a motion this week that WIENER DOGE’s creator, Liam Murphy, cannot serve as plaintiffs’ sole attorney in the case. 

“Murphy casts himself as the singular protagonist in his lawsuit’s story—a developer, victim, litigant, and trial lawyer, all in one,” Phantom’s attorneys wrote in a motion to disqualify the attorney as counsel Monday. “This convergence of roles will inevitably taint every stage of this litigation.”

In New York, where the lawsuit was filed, rules generally prohibit practicing lawyers from taking cases where they are likely to “be a witness on a significant issue of fact,” unless key exceptions apply.

When reached by Decrypt for comment Wednesday, Murphy argued that such an exception does apply in this case. The attorney-cum-meme coin developer said his fellow plaintiffs are family members including his mom, brother, girlfriend, and stepdad, all of whom were gifted WIENER DOGE tokens, and could not afford to retain a specialized crypto litigator. 

Thus, Murphy maintains, if he were booted off the case, his family members would have to drop the lawsuit, and by doing so experience “substantial hardship”—an exception to New York’s rule on attorney-witnesses.

“Phantom’s motion to disqualify me as counsel will go nowhere,” Murphy told Decrypt. “The prejudice of [the plaintiffs] losing me as their counsel far outweighs any hypothetical prejudice to the adversary.”

Phantom’s attorneys also argued this week that Murphy’s motives, and his clients’, may not necessarily be aligned. The lawyers argued, for instance, that “one of the major questions in this litigation” will be whether it was Murphy who failed to take certain security precautions in his maintenance of WIENER DOGE, and his own decisions that led to the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the meme coin. 

At some point, the attorneys said, other WIENER DOGE plaintiffs may want to hold Murphy responsible for their financial losses.

“Murphy cannot possibly represent their interests as a lawyer, at the same time he is interested in defending himself against potential claims his clients may want to bring against him,” Phantom’s attorneys said.

“My testimony will in no way be adverse to my clients,” Murphy retorted Wednesday, attempting to shoot down such arguments. 

The case is currently before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan. In the suit’s complaint, Murphy argues that Phantom, a dominant Solana wallet valued at over $3 billion, improperly stored users’ private keys in “unencrypted browser memory” easily obtained via malware. Phantom has vigorously denied these claims.

Murphy spent years working at some of New York’s top corporate law firms, where he represented crypto clients including Celsius, the digital assets lender that collapsed in spectacular fashion in 2022. Earlier this year, the attorney put up his own crypto-focused shingle: Murphy’s Law.