Wayne Cooper specializes in the sale and purchase of multi-million dollar companies, as well as public and private offerings for clients in a wide variety of industries. He works with clients in the areas of securities, corporate and partnership financing, franchising law, mergers and acquisitions and oil and gas.

Wayne is a sought-after lecturer on the subject of limited liability companies, corporate finance and exemptions from registration. He has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law and is the co-author of a widely used Oklahoma-based book, Business Organizations, Vernon’s Oklahoma Forms 2d.

Prior to law school, Wayne served four years in the United States Air Force as a development engineer and was discharged as a Captain in 1972. After law school, he served as law clerk for the Honorable William J. Holloway, Jr., Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Wayne started with the firm in 1976 and currently serves as leader of the Corporate/Securities practice group.

  • Represented a battery technology company in the preparation of a private offering memorandum for use in a $10 million offering of convertible promissory notes to accredited investors.
  • Represented the seller of an engineering company in a transaction valued at $46 million.
  • Represented the seller of a time and attendance software in a transaction valued in excess of $8 million.
  • Represented an oil and gas company in its sale of an aggregate of $220 million of leasehold interests and minerals to nationally recognized energy companies in three separate transactions over a period of 18 months.
  • Represented the buyer in the purchase of an engineering company from a nationally recognized energy company in transactions having an aggregate value in excess of $14 million.
  • Represented a construction company in its sale of assets to another Oklahoma City-based construction company in a transaction valued in excess of $6 million.
  • Represented an engineering company in the company’s design, procurement, construction and sale of (1) an oil and gas related facility to a middle eastern country in a transaction valued in excess of $75 million, and (2) a fertilizer plant to a nationally recognized chemical company in a transaction valued in excess of $68 million.
  • Represented a construction company in its sale of assets to a Kansas-based construction company in a transaction valued in excess of $5 million.
  • Represented an Austin-based software development company in the preparation of a private offering memorandum in connection with the company’s offer and sale of an aggregate of $4 million in LLC membership interests to investors.
  • Represented a grocery store chain in its acquisition of a company through a forward triangular merger, and related ESOP and corporate transactions valued in excess of $8 million.
  • Represented an oil and gas company in the preparation of private offering memoranda in connection with the company’s offer and sale of an aggregate of $6 million in LLC membership interests to investors in two separate drilling funds.

  • AV® Preeminent™ Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating
  • Best Lawyers®, Corporate Law, 2003-2025
  • Best Lawyers®, Mergers and Acquisitions, 2024-2025
  • Best Lawyers®, “Lawyer of the Year,” Tulsa, Corporate Law, 2012 and 2017
  • Chambers USA Leading Lawyer for Business-Corporate/Commercial Law, 2012-2023
  • Corporate Law Experts, a recommended corporate lawyer for Oklahoma, 2015
  • Super Lawyers®, Mergers & Acquisitions, 2006-2024

  • Oklahoma Bar Association, Business and Corporate Law Section, Past Chairman
  • Tulsa County Bar Association, Corporate Counsel Section, Past Chairman

  • Co-Author, Business Organizations, Vernon’s Oklahoma Forms 2d, Vols. 3A, 3B and 3C (West Group)

Education

  • J.D., with highest honors, University of Tulsa College of Law, Tulsa Law Journal, Managing Editor; Judge W. Lee Johnson Award; Martin, Fellows, Smith Cup, 1975
  • M.B.A., University of Nevada, 1971
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, 1968

Bar & Court Admissions

  • Oklahoma, 1975
  • United States District Court Western District of Oklahoma, 1976
  • United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit
  • United States Supreme Court