Meet Thomas Earnest

Fun Facts:

I’ve climbed the tallest mountain on 4 of the 7 continents: Denali (North America), Aconcagua (South America), Mt. Vinson (Antarctica), Kilimanjaro (Africa). Subject to resolution of armed conflict between Russian and Ukraine (Mt. Elbrus),  political unrest in the Papa New Guinea (Carstensz Pyramid) and permission from my wife (Everest), I plan to finish the Seven Summits over the course of the next several years.

If I weren’t a lawyer, I would be …

A professional mountain guide for big mountain climbing and backcountry ski touring.

What’s the most unusual thing in your office?

Print artwork of the original Air Jordan basketball shoes – so I can be like Mike.

What new technology will impact the future 10 years from now?

The easy, and obvious, answer is generative AI. The more entertaining answer is crypto.  The most compelling answer is both – excited to see how AI and blockchain technologies will interact and complement each other in the coming years. As AI facilitates rapid and significant technological opportunities, crypto and the blockchain will provide the network architecture to protect against data integrity, privacy and security risks inherent in AI.

Companies I’ve helped to grow and thrive:

  • Patch Technologies

  • Talus Renewables

  • Pathlight Ventures

  • Omni Creator Products

  • Read.cv (acquired by Perplexity AI)

  • Squeeze Massage

  • Retro

  • BamSEC (acquired by Tegus)

  • Messy by Alli Webb

  • The Picnic Group

  • Hamul (acquired by Roblox)

  • Sketchy

  • Voldex

  • Early Day (acquired by Wonderschool)

  • Andela

  • CrossInstall (acquired by Twitter)

  • ZoomLogi

  • Revolv

  • onX

  • Kearny Jackson Ventures

  • Dune Analytics

  • Galley Foods (acquired by Sweetgreen)

  • Magical

  • Seen Health

  • Paloma

  • Assure Health

Contact Thomas:

1.415.432.6008

TDEarnest@mintz.com
Full Bio on Mintz.com

As an emerging company lawyer, I’m lucky that I get to spend a good portion of every day supporting dynamic and inspiring founders and their companies. I get to dig in with them, understand their business, figure out their pressure points and their stresses. Then I get to help them craft solutions to protect their ideas so their businesses can flourish. While the larger legal industry is shifting towards hyper-specialization, my practice gravitates more towards being a Swiss Army knife. Any given day, an early-stage founder might face questions about corporate governance, the fundraising process, employment matters or IP issues, and I get to be that founder’s first call for  all of it. That’s exciting, meaningful, and I get to really see and sense my impact. I’m also an entrepreneur myself -- prior to joining Mintz, I founded and ran my own boutique law firm, so I know firsthand what it’s like to start a business, then to manage and scale it. From entity formation through to exit, I’m able to help you quickly scope whatever legal issues you might have (with the help of our larger Mintz team, of course!) and strategize about a realistic approach, on risk-adjusted basis, to solve it. 


Professional details

  • Member, Mintz Venture Capital & Emerging Companies, Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Technology Practices

Education

  • JD, New York University School of Law

  • BS, Georgia Institute of Technology