Hogan Lovells sign outside the Columbia Square building where its D.C. offices are located. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Hogan Lovells announced Thursday that it will be reducing the length of its U.S. summer associate program from 10 weeks to four and spreading partner distributions and bonuses initially scheduled for May over the coming months instead.

The changes are among a series of measures the international firm is taking in response to the continuing uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 global public health crisis.

"We had a strong first quarter with performance at the same level as 2019 and are in a position where we have a robust financial position with no long-term debt," Hogan Lovells CEO Stephen Immelt said in a statement. "However, the current situation is so unpredictable that the responsible step is to take a series of measures now which enable us to manage liquidity and keep costs to a minimum."

Immelt added that the firm's strategy would involve a "careful, step-by-step, approach" based on underlying principles of "fairness and shared burden, including by partners."

"Historically, we have made certain compensation decisions with an effective date of May 1 as well as starting our summer student programs. Given the uncertainties, we are putting them on hold until we know more," he continued.

Instead of distributing partner compensation based on the firm's 2019 performance at the start of May, the firm will instead spread payments equally over each month depending on the amount owed to each partner. The firm grew total global revenue by 6% in 2019 while raising profits per equity partner to $1.51 million.

And rather than starting in May, U.S. summer associates will instead begin later in the year, via a four-week program that may take place virtually. All second-year summer associates will receive job offers following their graduation in 2021, while first-year summer associates will be invited to take part in the firm's summer 2021 student program.

Hogan Lovells is also delaying the start date for U.S. first-year associates from October 2020 to January 2021 in response to most state bar exams being shifted from the summer to the fall. These incoming associates will receive stipends to help them through the fall.

The firm is also postponing salary reviews and discretionary bonus payments for nonpartner lawyers in the U.K. and Asia Pacific region originally due at the start of May. Associates in the Americas, Continental Europe and Africa have their reviews at the end of the year, so they are not currently directly affected.

But U.S. business service team members had salary reviews and bonus payments scheduled for the start of May, just as colleagues throughout the world, and the "significant majority" of these will also be postponed and reassessed later in the year.

The firm also halted recruiting for business services in March and is participating in a number of government business support programs in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the U.K., while considering options elsewhere.

In the U.K., the firm has canceled its summer student program, instead offering training contracts to most of the students and a place on the firm's winter training program to others.

A Hogan Lovells spokesperson added that the firm is continuing to bring on new partners. Since the start of the coronavirus emergency, the firm has brought on former White House trade adviser Kelly Ann Shaw as a partner in Washington, D.C. The firm is also open to adding associates depending on demand, but would first look to shuffle existing resources from one practice to another.

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