Slater's can't take any of the $70m - that is a contingency fee,...

Slater's can't take any of the $70m - that is a contingency fee, which is illegal in Australia. Litigation funders however can take a commission, but this case was run as no win, no fee. That is, Slaters has spent most of the $20m cost itself on paying wages, barristers and experts and that is all sitting on the balance sheet as WIP. They can now collect the $20m, once the court approves the settlement, less anything they owe to barristers, experts etc.

It will provide some boost to earnings, as I assume they don't record the full value of WIP to account for doubt about achieving a settlement, but primarily the bank balance is going to go up by ~$18 or $19m (allowing for barristers etc). This is a very positive outcome for SGH.