From 1997 to early 2005, Wayne held the positions of General Counsel and CEO for Crescent City Beignets, Inc. He was instrumental in establishing Crescent City as a national franchise company with locations from Georgia to California. Under his tenure, the franchise company was included in Entrepreneur magazine’s list of the top 500 franchises in the US and in 2004 was named one of the year’s “Hot Concepts” by Nation’s Restaurant News.

As General Counsel and CEO for Crescent City, Wayne was responsible for establishing the legal and business infrastructures necessary for aggressive franchise growth as well as managing the franchisor/franchisee relationship. Utilizing the franchise model, Wayne expanded Crescent City to a system which included nearly 40 franchisees with over 100 units in development.

After successfully negotiating and concluding the sale of Crescent City to its most successful franchisee, Wayne began the development of a franchise practice focused on providing experienced counsel to start-up, emerging and mature franchisors as these clients expand their systems through the granting of franchises on a regional, national and international level.