If anyone’s life reflects the stereotype American dream, it would be that of Eddie Wang Rodriguez, principal at Fish & Richardson’s La Jolla law practice.

He was born in 1967 in Hong Kong and was adopted immediately by a Chinese woman and her Mexican merchant seaman husband. However, when his adoptive parents moved later that year to the United States, he had to be left behind until 1973. He lived with an aunt and her five children in a studio apartment. The children shared one bed and a bucket that served as a bathtub.

He grew up in Oakland, flirting with the gang lifestyle, and attended school in San Francisco, near where his mother worked as a housekeeper.

“My mom had to get me from the police station when I was in third grade,” Rodriguez says. Her employer arranged for him to attend a private school, and that launched him into serious study.

He attended UCLA and then Stanford Law School. He joined Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in La Jolla, where he became known as the mergers and acquisitions guy. After seven years with Brobeck, he was recruited by Fish & Richardson in 2002 to head its corporate and securities group.

Now his work is about half mergers and acquisitions.

Rodriguez is starting his fourth year as an instructor at UCSD. For two years, he has lectured for SDSU’s Business School’s Entrepreneur Society, and he has completed a series of lectures for the San Diego Chinese Association, which he will repeat next year.

Poway is home to Rodriguez and his wife, Amy. Their children are Michela, 7, and Joshua, 4. Rodriguez is involved in martial arts and is training now for a future kickboxing match.

— Sandy Pasqua