Sierra Leone Respond To Jenner & Block’s USD 8 Million Lawsuit Against The Country

Sierra Leone told a federal judge in Washington, D.C.  On Monday, February 20, 2023, the Jenner & Block lawsuit for USD 8 million in legal fees is a “dark picture” and should be dropped.  

In a court filing requesting a dismissal of the case on Monday, February 20, 2023, Sierra Leone’s attorneys at Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman said Jenner failed to demonstrate that they were owed more than the USD 3.6 million that the West African nation had initially paid to their firm. 

In November 2022, Jenner said in its lawsuit that the law firm strongly represented Sierra Leone in a lawsuit involving an iron ore contractor who had pursued claims that were likely to subject the nation to USD 1.8 billion in damages. This dispute, according to the lawsuit, was settled without Sierra Leone paying any money.

Jenner’s complaint says the law firm “unfortunately” sued Sierra Leone for legal work between 2019 and 2021 that even turned out to be far more complex and massive than either party had initially thought.

The case is pending before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan. No hearing date has been set. 

Sierra Leone’s legal representative said in their filing that the law firm’s complaint was “void of precision”   regarding that Sierra Leone allegedly had agreed to pay Jenner & Block more than what is stated in the terms clause of the settlement agreement.  

At the heart of the underlying lawsuit, Sierra Leone claims its franchisor Gerald International Ltd has breached a contract to extract and sell iron ore from the mines. Sierra Leone, in 2019 hired all 500 of Jenner’s attorneys to solve a case involving Gerald. 

Sierra Leone said the company provided valuable services to the Republic in 2019 and 2021. The problem was that these services were provided at an agreed annual flat rate of USD 1.5 million, for which Sierra Leone is said to have paid a total of USD 3 million for two years of services provided by the company. The state claims it paid all fees under the contract and does not expect any complaints from Jenner regarding payments.