Drew Ketterer Contributed photo

BAR HARBOR — Norridgewock attorney Drew Ketterer was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at the annual summer meeting of the Maine State Bar Association.

Ketterer was orphaned at the age of 13 and lived on $90 a month of Social Security survivor benefits. In 1971, he became the first male graduate of Connecticut College for Women in New London, Conn., now known as Connecticut College. He graduated sixth out of a class of 316 with the distinction of magna cum laude. Earning a scholarship through college and law school, he graduated from Boston’s Northeastern University School of Law in 1974.

After five years of practicing law in Boston, he returned to Maine to open a general practice law firm in Norridgewock.

He was appointed by two Maine governors to chair the state ethics commission, charged with enforcing the state election laws.

While serving as Maine’s attorney general he completed five Boston Marathons and successfully sued the tobacco industry in the case Maine v. Philip Morris. He received what is believed to be the largest civil judgment in the history of the state of Maine, with a judgment in the amount of $1.4 billion, according to a news release.

After serving as Maine’s attorney general he returned to the law firm he founded in 1979 in Norridgewock and developed a general practice law firm. In July of 2014 his son Andrew became a partner in the law firm, now known as Ketterer & Ketterer, with offices in Maine and Florida.

He served as the president of the Somerset County Bar Association and was elected to the Maine Bar Association Board of Governors for three terms. He was also elected to serve as president for the New England Bar Association.