U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has ruled that the government of Sierra Leone has no immunity from a Jenner & Block lawsuit alleging the West African nation failed to pay $8 million in outstanding attorney-client legal fees.

Chutkan denied Thursday a defense motion that Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman filed on behalf of Sierra Leone seeking dismissal of Jenner & Block’s Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act complaint in D.C. federal court.