A green thumb for businesses: helps growing firms find capital to get started.

Attorney Craig Andrews likes to recall a favorite class in law school where students were required to "negotiate" for their grades. Students played either an employee or the employer in the class that was team taught by a law professor and a psychiatrist and focused, among other issues, on finding an opponent's weaknesses.

"Those who got the best deals were given the top grades," Andrews says.

Modest to a fault, the Brobeck Phleger & Harrison attorney has to be asked what grade he received.

"I got an A-plus," Andrews says, his face breaking into a slight grin. "It was a fun class."

No surprise then that Andrews, who helps young companies - usually high-techs or biotechs - get started, is considered a key figure in securing both public offering capital and venture financing for local firms.

Shrewd and steady, he's a guy you want on your team, say friends and colleagues.

"It's a very comforting thing to have a guy like him in your corner," says David Purcell, CEO and chairman of fast-growing Encad Inc. Andrews sits on the board of the producer of injet printers.

An imposing 6-foot-2-inches, Andrews is soft-spoken and pleasant - someone who gives the impression of being justa really nice guy.

He's all that and more, agrees Ralph Rubio, CEO and cofounder of Rubio's Restaurants Inc.

But he adds, "trust me, when it gets down and dirty, he more than holds his own. He's every effective."

Lots of other entrepreneurs apparently agree.

Along with Rubio's, Andrews represents three of San Diego's most prominent drug companies - Dura Pharmaceuticals, Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. and DepoTech Corp., all of which he took from start-up through an initial public offering (IPO) and beyond.

He also represents a host of other fledgling biotechs and telecommunications firms, including CombiChem Inc., Desmos Inc., and Applied Digital Access Inc.

Last year, the San Diego office of Brobeck Phleger did 15 public offerings, helping firms raise some $690 million in capital. Nationwide, Brobeck Phleger, based in San Francisco, did 75 public offerings. Only one other law firm in the state had more, the Silicon Valley-based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Doing public offerings and helping firms raise money is important to the firm's success, Andrews says. But mostly, he enjoys his job because it's fun.

"You're dealing with entrepreneurs - a fantastic group of people," he says. "They're always creative, smart and have tons of energy.

"Seeing these guys with great ideas commercialize them, and then building companies that are employing lots of people in San Diego. That's a lot of fun and you feel you've added some value in the process."

Ralph Rubio credits Andrews with helping his firm, as it expands out of state into Phoenix, and eyes a public offering in the future.

"The whole financing world was so new to us," Rubio recalls. "We didn't know a thing about equity markets and venture capital and he walked us through the whole thing."

Andrews' clients especially appreciate his connections. He's familiar with nearly all the principals of the venture capital firms who invest in San Diego companies.

"He has exceptional credibility with venture capitalists," says Encad's Purcell. "He can get young companies an audience with them."

Clients also value Andrew's counsel in steering them through the mine fields that can befall fledgling entrepreneurs.

Andrews says he has a friend who likes to say: "It's one thing to sit on top of a hill and watch a tank battle. It's another thing to be in the battle itself."

"What (entrepreneurs) need," says Andrews, "is someone to tell them what the field looks like."

Andrews, for example, can tell someone which venture capital firm is most likely to want a company like theirs, before soliciting the wrong firm and getting turned down.

"It's a herd instinct out there," he says of the venture capital firms. "If one says no, a lot will say no. I know which ones are going for what kind of deals."

Often, his advice comes at breakfast, and at no charge to a client.

"I have a deal with my clients. If they pay for breakfast, at least once a month I meet with them and don't charge for my time."

Andrews, a regular at the La Jolla Marriott, where the staff knows he likes granola with skim milk and strawberries, says the informal setting is a good way to get a handle on where a company is headed and what issues might be popping up in the future.

One reason Andrews likes dealing with entrepreneurs, is that he first thought he would end up in business himself.

Andrews' father, an aeronautical engineer, was laid off in the early '70s, at the tail end of the Vietnam War, and didn't work regularly again for several years.

The experience pushed Andrews to want to the security of running his own business. Law school seemed like a quick way into the board room, where he could then go out on his own.

"But then this emerging company stuff came along, and it was so much fun I never got a chance to do that," Andrews says.

His parents encouraged his success, convincing him to apply and win a scholarship at a private Catholic high school, Notre Dame, in Sherman Oaks. Because he skipped two grades as a youngster, Andrews started UCLA at age 17, before heading off to law school at the University of Michigan.

He clerked summers in Los Angeles, but a friend who had taken a job here encouraged him to visit San Diego.

Intellectually, it didn't make sense at the time to choose San Diego, but Andrews liked the city so much he decided to take his first job at Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps before eventually joining Brobeck Phleger in 1987.

In San Diego, Andrews met his wife, Christine, who's active in a number of volunteer activities.

Two weeks ago, the auxiliary unit of Children's Hospital she chairs hosted the "Celebration of Champions" event that raised $200,000 for the hospital's cancer unit.

While Andrews says he normally prefers mild-mannered activities like coaching basketball for teams his son and daughter play on, he admits to a few adventures. These include karate, in which he holds a black belt, calf roping and bungee jumping.

Four years ago, when Andrews turned 40, he took out a list he'd made at high school graduation of 50 things he'd wanted to do. Some items, like a trip to the moon or a date with Nancy Sinatra, were taken off the list and Andrews added some more like bungee jumping.

Always afraid of heights, he forced himself to jump headfirst from a bungee stand at Big Bear, the equivalent of diving off a 13-story building.

"It was a great experience," he says. Then he laughs. "Unfortunately, it did not cure me of my fear of heights."

Snapshot

Title: Partner, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP 

Age: 44

Family: Wife, Christine; daughter, Lisa, 15; son, Daniel, 11

Residence: Point Loma

Home town: Sepulveda

Education: J.D. with honors, University of Michigan Law School; B.A., UCLA