Latham & Watkins will hold its 2020 summer associates program and intends to honor its full financial commitments to those associates and to first-year fellows, a firm spokeswoman said Friday.

The format of that summer program, however, is still up in the air. As a result, the firm has told its summer associates not to make any travel or living arrangements yet, the spokeswoman said, adding that the firm will be flexible on how and where the associates and fellows start.

"We look forward to welcoming our newest colleagues to the firm. We are confident that, together, we will be able to meet the challenge of the months ahead and hold a summer program and a 1L fellowship program, in whatever form those programs take, that are rewarding, successful, and engaging," said Abid Qureshi, the chairman of Latham's global recruiting committee, in a statement.

Latham's announcement comes as the U.S. legal industry grapples in myriad ways with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts and layoffs, the pandemic has led a number of firms to delay or outright cancel their respective summer programs, or make them remote.

Latham & Watkins posted double-digit revenue gains for the second year in a row in 2019, boosting its top line by 11.3% to just over $3.76 billion. The firm's managing partner, Richard Trobman, credited Latham's "absolutely amazing year" to the strong demand it saw last year.

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