WAYNE HALPER, ESQ.

OF COUNSEL

Wayne Halper, Esq. is a music industry veteran, attorney and active member of the Nashville recording and arts community. In addition to being a member of the Gerben Perrott team, Wayne maintains is own law practice/consulting service for all areas of the entertainment industry (with an emphasis on independent artists).

A native of New York City, at the age of six (6) Wayne represented his music school at a city-wide recital, playing a Chopin Nocturne on piano at Carnegie Hall. Attending Stuyvesant High School in the East Village afforded Wayne the opportunity to attend concerts at the legendary Fillmore East practically every weekend during the late 60s (he attended the shows that became classic live albums for the Allman Brothers, Zappa, CSNY, and others). At the State University New York Albany, Wayne served as one of the disc jockeys and ultimately the program director for the campus radio station (WSUA).

After graduating law school in 1979, Wayne worked with Jules Kurz, specializing in foreign sub-publishing and licensing deals while representing Grace Jones, Rick James and Teena Marie. Living a block from the Lone Star Café in Manhattan, Wayne gravitated to country music and began representing The Oak Ridge Boys, among other artists from Nashville.

In 1983, Wayne moved to Nashville to serve as manager for The Oak Ridge Boys.  Shortly after he left the Oaks, Wayne formed Halper and Associates, a business management firm, where his first clients were Steve Earle and James Stroud.

From 1984 to 1989, Wayne served as Vice President Finance and Operations for Praxis Management, a management firm representing Jason and the Scorchers, John Hiatt, Steve Forbert, The Georgia Satellites, and Webb Wilder, among others.

In 1989, Wayne became the first in-house attorney at a major record label in Nashville when he joined Capitol Records, serving as Senior Vice President, Business Affairs.  At Capitol, Wayne worked with such stars as Garth Brooks, Tanya Tucker, Suzy Bogguss, and Billy Dean. He represented the EMI North America sector in developing a new worldwide royalty accounting system.

And in 1997, Wayne became General Manager/Head of Label Operations for DreamWorks Records Nashville, a division of the multifaceted entertainment studio formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Wayne supervised  the day-to-day activities of the label, oversaw business affairs, business development, legal, financial and administrative functions, coordinated the efforts of the sales, marketing, media, promotion and video departments and served as liaison between DreamWorks Records Nashville and DreamWorks’ home offices in Los Angeles.

Wayne has been NARAS (the “Grammy” organization) Trustee/Secretary-Treasurer, as well as Treasurer for the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Country Music Association, and the Nashville Chapter of the T. J. Martell Foundation. He also served on the R. I. A. A. Legal Affairs Committee, the Board of Directors of the Americana Music Association and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.  Moreover, in 2004 Wayne was selected as one of four Nashvillian Fathers of the Year, his proudest honor.

Education

Bar Memberships