How We Serve: Legal, Internal Audit, and Right-of-Way

Employees at Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) understand their roles as stewards of service to the members of the cooperative. The “How We Serve” series highlights an employee and their work group and explains how they serve our members every day.

As senior vice president and general counsel, Jim Horan has served as Basin Electric’s chief legal officer since July 2025, managing the Legal, Internal Audit, and Right-of-Way/Lands teams.

Prior to starting at Basin Electric, Horan served as executive director of the Mid-West Electric Consumers Association (Mid-West), which represents more than 300 cooperative and municipal utilities across nine states that receive power and transmission services from the Western Area Power Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The idea of Basin Electric started around the Mid-West board table in the 1950s.

Horan shares more about his role, the relationships he has with his team, and how together their purpose has strengthened Basin Electric’s commitment to serving its member-owners.

When asked what a typical day entails, Horan lightheartedly says, “I don’t know if there is a standard day; it’s somewhat dependent on what comes in the door.” Between reviewing contracts, managing litigation, attending strategy meetings, and regularly interacting with members, he’s quickly becoming familiar with the organization on many levels. “The issues are as broad as the cooperative and our subsidiaries,” he remarks.

Integrity is the cornerstone of the teams Horan leads. “We’re responsible for the compliance, risk management, and controls that underly the ethical operations of the organization,” he says. “Our team members approach their work with honesty, dependability, and accountability. They look to establish and enforce ethical behavior, fairness, and respect for others inside and outside of Basin.”

Horan notes that his teams provide a great deal of risk management for Basin Electric. “But for Legal, Internal Audit, and Right-of-Way, the work of the cooperative would be harder to accomplish, more costly, and much riskier for the membership,” he says.

The Legal division provides counsel for the organization by supporting the business units through risk management, negotiations, drafting, and representation with regulatory bodies, while Internal Audit staff conduct necessary audits, develop and ensure proper controls are established and followed, and provide risk management guidance to various departments across the organization.

The Right-of-Way team manages the cooperative’s real estate portfolio for a variety of uses, which includes planning for new facilities and working with landowners across our footprint in project development.

When he’s not busy working on behalf of the cooperative, Horan also finds time to be an active member of the community, volunteering with The Advocates for Human Rights, and serving on the boards of directors for the Bismarck Mandan Lacrosse Association and the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra.

Sharing thoughts on his time at Basin Electric, Horan says, “I have so much more to learn from every corner of our cooperative. I look forward to growing my knowledge of the organization and appreciate the opportunity to serve our members.”