US technology law firm Fenwick & West has opened its first international office in Shanghai after receiving approval from the country's Ministry of Justice.

The Silicon Valley-headquartered outfit, known for representing Facebook on its 2012 IPO, applied for a licence to launch the base last year in the hopes of boosting its China practice, previously run out of the US.

It currently has a team of 20 lawyers focused on China, with six based on the ground in Shanghai.

They include former Covington & Burlington Shanghai co-head Eva Wang, who joined Fenwick last May to help spearhead the its upcoming venture in the city, alongside lawyers Ben Li, Ruomu Li, Jen Liu, Liz Qin and Eric Yao – who have also recently been recruited.

Wang has a significant amount of experience in US corporate and securities law for Asian tech companies and for American corporates doing business in China, having also worked for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Shanghai, and previously serving as general counsel for China-based mobile chip supplier, Spreadtrum Communications.

The firm's China team is also being supported by ex-Wilson Sonsini partner Carmen Chang, now managing director of venture capital company New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and working as a senior China advisor to the firm on a part-time basis.

"The move to open an office in Shanghai is very much driven by client demand," said Fenwick chairman Richard Dickson.

"In response to increasing work for technology and life sciences clients based in China as well as US companies doing business in China, we're making additional investments including recruiting lateral partner Eva Wang a year ago, and now, opening an office in Shanghai and expanding the team to 20 attorneys, including those who reside in the firm's US offices.

"Our new office, staffed with six attorneys, further bolsters our active China practice."

Fenwick & West, which now has a total of four offices including its bases in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Seattle, further boosted its reputation in the tech sector this year after advising mobile messaging company WhatsApp on its 16bn (£9.6bn) acquisition by Facebook.

It is among a long list of specialist tech firms looking to ramp up its presence in Asia as e-commerce, social networking and mobile apps increase in popularity in the region, and local and multinational companies become increasingly active.

Others to have grown in recent years include Twitter IPO counsel Wilson Sonsini, which opened its second China base in Hong Kong in 2012, UK outfit and media specialist Olswang, which launched in Singapore in the same year, Winston & Strawn, which opened in Tapei this March, and Bird & Bird, which has recently added bases in Korea and Australia.

Also capitalising on the market have been Wall Street firms such as Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, who have been the dominant advisors for Chinese internet companies recently flocking to the US for IPOs.

Related: Davis Polk joins Wilson Sonsini on Twitter IPO