(Reuters) - Demand for legal operations professionals jumped in 2020, a new report shows, as in-house law departments increased their focus on managing spending and adopting technology during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2021 State of Corporate Law Departments Report from Thomson Reuters combined information from its June 2020 survey of 223 law departments and its legal tracker's data on over 1,450 law departments. It found that 81% of law departments said they were hiring legal ops professionals in 2020, up from 57% in 2019.

The jump in legal ops hiring comes after the pandemic prompted both short- and long-term changes for in-house teams. Thomson Reuters, part of the same company as Reuters news and Westlaw, said in its report that workload increased at 58% of legal departments and budget decreased at 29% in 2020. Nearly one-third of law departments increased their spending on technology, as lawyers switched to remote work.

Legal operations professionals - who aren't necessarily lawyers themselves - often oversee law department change management, budgeting, efficiency efforts and tech adoption.

The role has gained traction in recent years, with legal operations experts and managers increasingly in demand in legal departments and law firms, and a proliferation of alternative legal services providers advertising operations support.