NEW YORK CITY-Law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP has nabbed what it says is essentially the entire New York-based real estate team at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, led by partners Marc Shapiro and Jill Block. The firm says the addition of the Orrick team boosts Pillsbury’s real estate capabilities here and across the US; an Orrick spokesman tells GlobeSt.com the firm wishes the real estate team well.

Along with Shapiro and Block, the team includes counsel Susan Saslow and senior associates Jason Schlessel and Christine Roch. John Engel, the Washington, DC-based head of Pillsbury’s real estate practice, says in a release that he believes the real estate market is once again growth-oriented and represents an attractive and stable home for investment capital.

“We are already seeing banking, private equity firms and hedge funds returning to the market and that movement will accelerate in the later half of 2011,” says Engel. “Marc and Jill are joining us at a critical time in the real estate recovery.”

The Shapiro/Block team, which reportedly has closed more than 1,000 commercial real estate transactions over the past quarter century, represents private equity investors, property owners, operators and lenders in purchase, sale and financing transactions. Their work extends across the major food groups. They also represent lenders and borrowers in real estate debt restructuring transactions, according to a release.

A Pillsbury spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that 60% of the firm’s lateral hires have been New York-based, although the firm is based in California. Last summer, it hired a 14-member bank finance team from Nixon Peabody's New York offices.