A music industry veteran, attorney and active member of the Nashville recording and arts community, Wayne Halper currently operates a boutique law office/consulting service for all areas of the entertainment industry.
A native of New York City, at the age of 6 Halper 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 Halper the opportunity to attend concerts at the legendary Fillmore East practically every weekend during the last 60s. At the State University New York Albany, Halper served as one of the disc jockeys and ultimately the program director for the campus radio station.
After graduating law school in 1979, Halper worked with Jules Kurz, specializing in foreign sub-publishing and licensing deals while representing Grace Jones and Teena Marie. Living a block from the Lone Star Café in Manhattan, Halper gravitated to country music and began representing the Oak Ridge Boys.
In 1983, Halper moved to Nashville to serve as manager for the Oak Ridge Boys. Shortly after he left the Oaks, Halper formed Halper and Associates, a business management firm, where his first clients were Steve Earle and James Stroud.
From 1986 to 1987, Halper served as Vice President Finance and Operations for Praxis Management, a management firm representing Jason and the Scorchers, John Hiatt, Steve Forbert and the Georgia Satellites, among others.
In 1989, Halper joined Capitol Nashville Records, where he served as Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, where he 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, Halper 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. Halper 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.
Currently serving as counsel to Leadership Music, Halper has been NARAS Trustee/Secretary-Treasurer as well as Treasurer both for the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Chapter of the T. J. Martell Foundation. Halper also served on the R. I. A. A. Legal Affairs Committee, Moreover, in 2004 Halper was selected as one of four Nashvillian Father’s of the Year, his proudest honor.