Clotelle Drakeford and William Andrews were recently honored by the Albany County Bar Association.

Drakeford, who has been a lawyer for just a year, was given the Trailblazer Award. She served as a legal intern in the Office of the Public Defender for the Northern District of New York and now serves as an assistant public defender in Columbia County as well as volunteering on the board of the Capital District Black and Hispanic Bar Association.

The Public Service Committee, which made the selection, lauded her for applying herself “wholeheartedly to the work she does.”

Assistant County Attorney Andrews was given the Commitment to Excellence Award and was praised as “a zealous public advocate that has dedicated over twenty years of his career to serving the people of Albany county and New York State.”

He generated $2.68 million in fine recovery during his time at the New York State Insurance Department, helped the State Attorney General’s Office break up a $30 million fraud ring, and developed an anti-money laundering plan to improve regulatory oversight of insurance products, according to a release from the bar association.

Andrews co-founded Project Growth, a juvenile justice restitution program designed to reimburse crime victims for stolen property and hold juveniles accountable through structured work placements.

Drakeford and Andrews were feted on May 8 at Provence, a restaurant in Guilderland’s Stuyvesant Plaza where Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan delivered the keynote address.