(Reuters) - Rochester, New York's city council has hired Morrison & Foerster but pumped the brakes on plans to add Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to the roster of law firms involved in the city's response to the death of Daniel Prude in police custody.

Mayor Lovely Warren and City Council President Loretta Scott had asked the council to approve an agreement to hire WilmerHale when its members met Tuesday. Instead, the council on Tuesday voted to refer the agreement to its public safety committee for more discussion.

"We look forward to working with the city council and its committees to see what we can do to be of assistance to the city," said WilmerHale partner and former U.S. attorney John Walsh.

Prude was a 41-year-old Black man who was killed in police custody on March 23. Video footage released by his family showed Rochester officers putting a mesh hood over his head and pinning him to the ground. A medical examiner ruled Prude's death a homicide by asphyxiation, and seven police officers involved in his arrest have been suspended.

As detailed in Warren and Scott's Oct. 9 letter to the council, WilmerHale would conduct a "deep-dive review" of the department's policies relating to use of force, de-escalation, body cameras, and responding to mental health calls.

The letter said WilmerHale's team would be headed by partner Danielle Conley, a former associate deputy attorney general at the U.S. Justice Department, although a firm spokesman said Walsh and Brent Gurney, a Washington, D.C.-based partner, would also lead the team.

The firm would be paid a flat fee of $250,000 and would have four months to complete its review, the letter said. After the review, WilmerHale would issue written findings and recommendations to the city.

WilmerHale's proposed involvement, however, has generated vocal opposition from members of the Police Accountability Board Alliance, a coalition of groups that supports the similarly named, civilian-led board that is charged with investigating police complaints and reviewing department policies.

To alliance members like Iman Abid-Thompson, the Genesee Valley region chapter director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, the firm's hiring undermines the mission of the newly created Police Accountability Board.

"It's completely abysmal to me," Abid-Thompson said. "We're not in support of money being spent on a firm to do this work."

WilmerHale touted its police reform credentials in a Monday statement. It cited its work crafting a report for the U.S. Conference of Mayors on the best police practices earlier this year. Its attorneys have also represented the cities of Chicago and Baltimore during civil rights probes conducted by DOJ.

Abid-Thompson nevertheless questioned the law firm's effectiveness on police reform. "No progress has been shown in the cities they have worked in," she said. WilmerHale declined to respond to her comments.

If given the go-ahead by the council, WilmerHale would be at least the third law firm that's been retained by city officials in connection to Prude's March 23 death.

The council on Sept. 15 voted to retain Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff, Abady, Ward & Maazel to independently investigate "the city's communications, processes and procedures" relating to Prude's death. According to a council ordinance, "the maximum compensation for the agreement shall be $100,000."

At Tuesday's meeting, the council voted to retain Carrie Cohen of Morrison & Foerster to "provide conflict counsel" during Emery Celli's investigation for $85,000. In a joint statement, Warren and the Rochester Corporation Counsel's Office said Cohen would be an "independent special counsel."

"In selecting Ms. Cohen to represent the city, we have empowered her with full and independent authority to represent the city without any interference from our respective offices in order to ensure that the council's special investigator is able to obtain the necessary testimony and documents related to its important investigation," they said in a statement.