Why is Irakli Kandashvili continuing David Asatiani's ugly politics? — asks Lasha Janibegashvili

Recently in Kutaisi, a deranged client broke into a lawyer’s own home and beat him in front of his wife and children. The attacker overpowered the lawyer, and the lawyer wounded the attacker using a self-defense object, and today he is in prison.

• What is the Bar Association doing during this time?

• Why isn't it taking effective steps?

• This is the umpteenth incident regarding physical violence that they are failing to react to.

• Meanwhile, you are running around European countries to collect grants and showing off, pretending to protect lawyers. Show me a single lawyer you have protected!

• Because legal rights are not protected in Georgia, and again and again there is continuous arbitrariness and selective justice in the name of ethics in this body, as well as the laundering of grant money—all encouraged by the state—I have decided to erase all red lines with this organization. The organization that holds these rights and is supposed to protect them is the number 1 enemy of lawyers' independence. It is in cahoots with the government. That is why I demanded the creation of multiple associations, because I became a victim of their repressions. When they couldn't find a client [to file a complaint against me], the ethics leadership themselves filed a complaint against me in the ethics commission. What more illegality do you want? An organization engaged in internal cannibalism persecutes its own members. I still maintain: This organization is engaged in illegal activities; for years, massive money laundering has been taking place through grants received from foreign countries. Anyone who speaks up, or is considered opposition, faces illegal pressure coordinated by the association's leadership and its organizations. This dirty signature is evident in many cases. In this organization, pressure on a professional basis happens by order, aimed personally at lawyers. Through professional pressure and fabricating cases out of thin air ("sewing with white thread") in the ethics commission, they use their insiders. I was also framed exactly like this by the leadership themselves. The state covers up their boundless crimes; hundreds of complaints have been left without a reaction. In the end, they even forced me to leave the country.

• Therefore, we will provide information to influential figures in every state so they cut off all financial and other support to gba.ge, and the leadership of this organization should be declared persona non grata. It is also demanded that the State Audit Office control the transparency of the Bar Association. And they should lose all international support. Blatant opacity and the lack of accountability regarding double standards, using the ethics commission to settle personal scores, is a severe systemic crime, and the acting individuals must now face criminal liability! And Mr. Zaza Khatiashvili had better stop playing double games with me. I am writing this as a persecuted person by the association's clan itself. — States Lasha Janibegashvili

For what purpose is a Bar Association created?

A Bar Association in any country is created with one purpose: the development of the legal profession, the protection of lawyers' independence, and ensuring clients' interests. These three functions are inseparable from each other. All this balance is destroyed when the leadership acts as a gang and there is clan rule.

Lasha Janibegashvili states that after criticizing the GBA, he himself became the target of fabricated ethical cases and professional pressure from the chairman of the ethics commission himself, which ultimately ended with him leaving the country. He calls this process a "form of repression."

Physical Safety of Lawyers.

Any violence against a lawyer related to their professional activities must be the primary subject of the GBA's response. The Kutaisi case is cited as one example of the association's passivity and indifference in this direction. An association that remains silent on an attack in a lawyer's home, uses double standards in the ethics commission, does not fully publish its financial reports publicly, and has its own audits rigged, can no longer ensure the effective performance of these functions. Who does the institution that determines the fate of the legal profession serve: 10,000 lawyers or narrow private subjects?

Financial Opacity — Questions without answers

The GBA is funded by two main sources: membership dues — every lawyer pays 200 GEL annually — and international grants. Both sources are matters of public interest. There are over 10,000 lawyers in Georgia. 200 GEL multiplied by 10,000 equals approximately 2,000,000 GEL per year just from membership dues. Add to this the exam fee — 250 GEL per candidate. This averages up to 1 million; however, the transparency of how these finances are spent is not publicly available in a proper format.

The Issue of Financial Opacity

The Bar Association's leadership chooses and hires their own auditors every year and makes them write whatever they want. The Bar Association is a non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entity. Organizations with this status are subject to accountability under Georgian law. Does the State Audit Office exercise proper control over this organization? — This question remains open.

The Bar Association has a monopoly on the profession, against which processes were held in the Constitutional Courts.

The Law of Georgia "On Lawyers" mandates compulsory membership for a lawyer in the GBA. Lasha Janibegashvili went to the Constitutional Court of Georgia against this norm — lawsuit: "Lasha Janibegashvili Constitutional Lawsuits" — and the case was accepted for review. Lasha Janibegashvili also filed a third closed constitutional lawsuit which advanced to substantive review, which would limit the association's rights before the Court of Appeals, during which time the chairman of the ethics commission exerted professional pressure on him, "suing him in the very ethics commission subordinate to him." See the third constitutional lawsuit.

Under Irakli Kandashvili's rule, the activities of the ethics commission undermine the professional unity and well-being of lawyers. Financial opacity and double standards are the beginning of the end. Bringing in a financial audit and arresting the association's leadership is only a matter of time.

Author: Giorgi Gegeshidze #Financial_Opacity #GBA Ethics Commission Published: 2026-05-11 00:00:00