Linklaters has taken over from Olswang to advise News International on all outstanding civil litigation claims relating to the phone-hacking scandal at now-defunct Sunday tabloid News of the World.

The UK top 40 firm has been taken off the case, with the switch in advisers coming after a number of civil cases settled in January, leading to a drop in advisory work.

Linklaters will now handle any outstanding litigation against the company on top of its existing role advising parent company News Corporation's management and standards committee.

The change in advisers, first reported in The Times yesterday (14 March), comes after Olswang was instructed by News International in July last year to draw up a new code of practice for the company when NoW scandal broke.

The firm was also taking the lead for News International and subsidiary News Group Newspapers on civil litigation claims, with around 20 cases settling in January including those of Jude Law, who was handed £130,000.

Around 11 law firms won roles on the proceedings, including Collyer Bristow, Mishcon de Reya, Bindmans and Atkins Thomson.

The news comes after Legal Week reported earlier this week that the Leveson Inquiry has spent more than half a million pounds of public funds on barristers' fees since the inquiry into media standards launched six months ago in light of the phone hacking scandal.

The bulk of the legal fees (£536,100) spent between July 2011 and 31 January 2012 have gone to the core counsel on the inquiry – 39 Essex Street's Robert Jay QC, Temple Garden Chambers' David Barr and Carine Patry Hoskins of Landmark Chambers.