John Ward, President and managing partner of Sullivan & Ward, P.C., has announced his retirement effective August 1, 2020.
John has served for 56 years at the firm, providing legal counsel to electric cooperatives throughout the country. He helped guide them through periods of great growth, and periods of turbulence, always with the goal of providing reliable, safe, and abundant energy to Americans. John started working for the cooperatives in 1964 alongside Bill Wisdom, then senior partner in the firm. Wisdom was instrumental in formation of cooperatives from the inception. Together they served as legal counsel and provided leadership to distribution cooperatives and generation and transmission cooperatives.
John has been involved through the years in the rewriting and amending of the various operating and transmission agreements between generation cooperatives and investor owned utilities. The agreements developed between the parties have worked very well in terms of the electric cooperatives and the investor owned operations. John has also been instrumental in forming various cooperative organizations, including the National Electric Bar Association and the G&T Lawyer’s group, helping draft the initial bylaws of the electric cooperative bar association. These organizations have been instrumental in developing a good working relationship among cooperative attorneys on a nationwide basis. Mr. Ward has been a frequent lecturer at NRECA meetings and functions. He has continued to work with cooperatives from 1964 to the present.
John is proud to be associated with the Iowa electric cooperatives, who have demonstrated themselves to be both progressive and professional in assuring Iowans access to safe, reliable energy. “It is because of the people and leaders involved in the Iowa system that they have experienced success. They face many challenges in the future with new forms of power supply, but by working together cooperatively, they will assure a continuous supply of low cost, dependable energy into the next century.”
John grew up on a farm in Marion County and now lives in West Des Moines with his wife Dana. John has two children and two step-children.
Please join us in congratulating John on 56 years of prosperous practice of law and wish him well as he transitions into retirement.