Zaza Bibilashvili

Zaza Bibilashvili (Georgian: ზაზა ბიბილაშვილი; born August 16, 1974) is a Georgian lawyer, writer, publicist and politician. He is the cofounder and chairman of the board of Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education, the founder and Senior Partner of BGI Legal, and Chairman of the Georgian Richard Wagner Society.

Early life and education

Bibilashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. His father, Guram "Givi" Bibilashvili was an Orientalist. His mother, Nana Makharadze, was a piano teacher and accompanist. He studied at the Secondary School #55 in Tbilisi and the experimental music school at Tbilisi State Conservatoire. At age 10 he received a second ranking in a chess tournament, before abandoning chess.

In 1989, at age 15, he was among the 10 Georgian students chosen for a 1-year study in the US, as part of the first wave of then Soviet Georgia's youth selected for such exchange. During his year in the US, he attended Bennett High School, a public school in Buffalo, New York and the Calasanctius School, a private Piarist Order catholic school founded by Hungarian priests who had fled to the US after Hungary's 1956 Revolution.

In 1990, upon returning to Georgia, Bibilashvili enrolled in Tbilisi State University as a student of the first wave of the newly formed School of International Law and International Relations, majoring in international law.

In 1993 Bibilashvili received a full scholarship from Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP) and was sponsored by the Northlake and Stone Mountain Rotary Clubs to attend the Oglethorpe University at Atlanta, Georgia. During his stay in Atlanta, Bibilashvili was actively involved with the Rotary. In recognition of his dedication and involvement, he was named Will Watt Fellow by the Rotary Club of Northlake, Georgia, in 1994 and was awarded the highest award of Rotary International, Paul Harris Fellowship, in the following year.

In 1994 he continued his studies at Canisius University, a private Jesuit university in Buffalo, New York, majoring in international relations and French, earning his B.A. in 1995. Later the same year, several months after returning to Georgia, Bibilashvili passed special makeup exams to earn his law degree from Tbilisi State University.

In 2000 Bibilashvili was admitted to Leiden University to pursue an LL.M. degree, though declined admission and scholarship due to personal reasons.

In addition to his native Georgian, he speaks fluent English, Russian, basic French and Spanish, and has started learning German at the age of 49.

Career

While a student in Buffalo, Bibilashvili met Constantine Lusignan-Rizhinashvili, who was then an advisor to President Eduard Shevardnadze and had just set up Georgian Consulting Group (GCG) with his partner, Gia Bazgadze. Bibilashvili worked briefly with GCG during 1995 and accepted an offer to join the firm as an associate upon returning to Georgia in June 1998. By then, GCG Law Office was Georgia’s premier law firm, handling substantial portion of foreign-sourced legal work in the country and was associated with Andersen Legal. Bibilashvili become the director of GCG Law in 2000. In 2002, after the acquisition of GCG by Ernst & Young, Bibilashvili continued to serve as director of EY Law Tbilisi.

In 2005, after Ernst & Young's global decision to exit law, Bibilashvili founded BGI Legal.. According to Chambers Global 2020, Zaza Bibilashvili is a "formidable and brilliant lawyer, with outstanding problem-solving attitude, proactive approach in solving disputes and high business acumen" Chambers Europe, which ranked Bibilashvili as a Senior Statesperson in 2024, describes him as a "lawyer with decades of experience, who executes flawlessly."

Bibilashvili has acted as an arbitrator in ICC international arbitrations based in Vienna, Zurich and London.

A founding member of the Georgian Bar Association (GBA), Bibilashvili served on the Executive Board of GBA between 2009 and 2013, where he chaired the Commercial Law Committee.

In addition to being a Board Member of ICC Georgia (the national committee of the world’s largest business organization) since 2009, where he used to chair the Arbitration Commission, Bibilashvili was one of the original founders of the Association of Georgian Law Firms, and served on the Board of AGLF between 2014 and 2017, where he headed Georgia’s first ever pro bono initiative.

During 2009-2010, Bibilashvili served as a member of the State Constitutional Commission. Between 2002 and 2005 Bibilashvili was an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration of the European Chamber of Commerce in Georgia.

Bibilashvili often contributes to World Bank's annual Doing Business publication and acts as a judge at various Moot Court competitions.

At various times, Bibilashvili served on the boards of Poti Seaport Corporation (Georgia's largest port), Teliani Valley (Georgia's largest winemaker at the time), Foundation for Democracy and Development, the Georgian Vine Foundation, Caucasian Journal, the Georgian advisory board of American Friends of Georgia, a US charity, and Caucasus Journal, an online magazine.

Politics

Publicly active since 2007, Bibilashvili went into party politics in October 2013, one year after the United National Movement's (UNM) defeat in general elections to a Georgian Dream (GD) Coalition led by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Russian-made oligarch. At a time when people were leaving what was then the largest opposition party, Bibilashvili joined a disgraced and increasingly demonized UNM as member of its board. When asked, at a 2015 international conference, why he had jeopardized a successful legal career for a political cause of unclear benefit, he explained his move by seeing Russia’s direct involvement behind Ivanishvili and his GD party – an idea which was shunned and ridiculed by many in international community during the early years of GD, but which has since become a self-evident truth.

Bibilashvili published the “Georgian Gazette” during 2015-2016, and initiated the movement “Send a Bill to Ivanishvili“, before shifting to a more active role in the party. In 2016 he led an effort to reclaim the party after a hostile takeover attempt and was elected as Vice Chair of Political Council with a mandate for change. Following a campaign to reform the party and to introduce transparency and internal democracy, Bibilashvili fully separated from the party in May 2018. He officially resigned amicably from his position as well as party membership on February 6, 2020.

While in the party, he championed the cause of fighting the growing Russian influence in Georgia, infiltration of Georgia’s security and intelligence apparatus by Russian special services with Ivanishvili’s tacit consent, exposing Ivanishvili’s Russian links as well as countering anti-Western disinformation narratives and historic revisionism stemming from GD government.

Public activities

In June 2018, Bibilashvili co-founded the Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education. While the Center’s presentation was held in November 2018, the Center kicked off its activities a few months later, with a round-table conference on the 140th Anniversary of the founding of the Society for the Spread of Literacy Among Georgians.

The Center is an independent and nonpartisan institution with an ambitious, long-term vision of transforming Georgia through education, spread of critical thinking and cultivating a sense of individual responsibility. Named after Ilia Chavchavadze, a lasting symbol of Georgia’s national revival, the Center aims to promote active citizenship and civic engagement, within the overall framework of democracy promotion.  It is also focused on creating a more transparent and accountable political system. The Center is dedicated to promoting democratic Western values, supporting political pluralism, protecting mainstream political agenda and fostering a more informed, rational decision-making and political discourse both by citizens as well as Georgia’s political class.

While working with various interest groups, the Center’s emphasis and primary focus is on the youth and those Georgians who are currently less exposed to the West.

Bibilashvili is the founder and editor-in-chief of the quarterly magazine Akhali Iveria since 2022, where the Chavchavadze Center has partnered with the University of Georgia and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

With civic memory being one of its core focus areas, the Chavchavadze Center produced 20 documentaries about Georgia from the restoration of independence (1991) till the Rose Revolution (2003) in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the University of Georgia. A 2-hour documentary about the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia and current impediments to peace and reintegration is currently pending completion.

The Center has also produced a documentary The Russian Trap – Fight for History, in partnership with Internews Georgia and Investigative Bureau. The documentary explores disinformation narratives related to Soviet nostalgia and exposes real facts about various aspects of Soviet life, exploited by anti-Western actors.

As part of promoting the notion of civic memory and applying it in the context of disinformation, Bibilashvili authored and hosted a TV program "Memory" on Girchi TV (2021-2022), and a rubric "Civic Memory" on Mtavari Channel (2023), exploring Georgia's contemporary history and exposing some of the hidden social, political and historical clichés hindering Georgia's development.

Bibilashvili is a frequent speaker at various national and international fora, business associations as well as professional and civic organizations.  He has served as a trainer and lecturer for organizations like the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Center for Strategic Dialogue on civic memory, anti-disinformation skills, political parties and intra-party democracy, debating, public speaking and negotiation skills.

Bibilashvili writes frequently for leading Georgian print and online publications. He is an author of Drusilla, a novel published in 2014 and several other books and publications.

Wagner Society

A regular at the Bayreuth Festival since 2009, Bibilashvili has been promoting Wagner's music in Georgia since early 2000s. After years of informal gatherings with fellow Wagnerians, Bibilashvili co-founded the Georgian Richard Wagner Society in May 2013, for the 200th centennial of the great composer, together with David Sakvarelidze, director of Tbilisi Opera and Bakur Sulakauri, founder of Georgia’s largest publishing house. A concert was held to celebrate the event, and the first two translated publications were presented to public. Overall, four books have been translated into Georgian and published by the Wagner Society: The Complete Operas of Richard Wagner by Charles Osborne; Short Stories and Essays by Richard Wagner; Perfect Wagnerite by George Bernard Shaw; and Richard Wagner and Tannhauser in Paris by Charles Baudelaire, with a preface by Luka Nakhutsrishvili.

Personal life

Bibilashvili is married to Nino Kalandadze and they have six children.

Honors and awards

• Will Watt Fellow (1994)
• Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International (1995)
• Order of Honors, Georgia (2012)

Publications

Bibilashvili has authored books as well as reports with the focus on Gerogia and Georgia politics, and fiction novels.

Books

• Bibilašvili, Zaza (2023). K̕art̕uli matric̕a: politikuri publistika: dialogebi. T̕bilisi: Gamomc̕emloba Intelek̕ti. ISBN 9789941316081.
• Bibilashvili, Zaza (2020). In a Slightly More Self-Respecting Country. Publishing House Intellect.
• Bibilashvili, Zaza, Paitchadze David (2014) – The Ivanishvili Calendar.

Reports

• Kalandadze, Nino; Bibilashvili, Zaza; Jokhadze, Giorgi; Kharebava, Giorgi (2023). The Time to Gather Stones: Overcoming Georgia's Two-party Divide (PDF) (Report). Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education. ISBN 9789941861482.
• Bibilashvili, Zaza; Kharebava, Giorgi; Jokhadze, Giorgi; Kalandadze, Nino (2023). On the Frontline: Countering Disinformation in Georgia (PDF) (Report). Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education. ISBN 9789941859915.
• კრიტიკული აზროვნება, მართლმსაჯულება და მოქალაქეობა [Critical Thinking, Justice and Citizenship] (PDF) (Report). Center for European Studies and Civic Education. 2022. ISBN 9789941504235.
• Gersamia, Mariam; Japaridze, Gaioz; Kalandadze, Nino; Kharebava, Giorgi; Jokhadze, Giorgi (2020). Bibilashvili, Zaza (ed.). Intra-party Democracy in Georgia (PDF) (Report). Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education. ISBN 9789941312830.
• Kharebava, Giorgi; Jokhadze, Giorgi; Japaridze, Gia; Kalandadze, Nino (2022). Bibilashvili, Zaza (ed.). Causes of the Intra-party Democracy Deficit in Georgia (PDF) (Report). Tbilisi: Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education.
• Jokhadze, Giorgi; Kharebava, Giorgi; Japaridze, Gia; Kalandadze, Nino (2020). Bibilashvili, Zaza (ed.). Consequences of Deficit of Intra-party Democracy in Georgia (PDF) (Report). Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education.
• Khutsishvili, Teimuraz; Kalandadze, Nino; Japaridze, Gaioz; Jokhadze, Giorgi; Kharebava, Giorgi (2020). Bibilashvili, Zaza (ed.). Liberalism and Georgia (PDF) (Report). Ilia Chavchavadze Center for European Studies and Civic Education. ISBN 9789941312922.

Fiction

• Bibilašvili, Zaza (2023). Delirium. Gamomcʻemloba Intelekʻti. ISBN 9789941316098.
• Bibilašvili, Zaza (2019). Atʻcamiani sizmrebi. Tʻbilisi: Gamomcʻemloba Intelekʻti. ISBN 9789941482724.
• Bibilashvili, Zaza (2014). Drusilla. Sulakauri Publishing.