<p>HappyAlumnus, Yes, it is possible that work experience could be used in tie breaking cases among the very top law schools. However, due to rankings, the key components of admission that I have seen were: LSAT, Adjusted GPA thought the LSAC, and the essay. I know of hundreds of people who have been admitted to many types of law schools. However, I have yet to see “work experience” overcome lower LSATs or GPAs. The primary reason is rankings. Rankings are everything for law schools. They live and die by them. Most of the schools will do anything to raise their rankings or to keep their rankings up. Sadly, work experience for newly admitted students is NOT a factor in the rankings. </p>
<p>In fact, both my son and a friend’s son had tremendous work experience working for top firms, the government and even worked on contracts. Yet both didn’t seem to benefit from the work experience regarding law school admission.</p>
<p>However, with that said, I can see some very top schools, especially for those located in states that have anti-affirmative action laws using work experience as a subterfuge in getting around these anti-affirmative action laws or getting around the problems that affirmative action presents. However, even in these cases. I would bet that use of work experience isn’t widely used and isn’t a major factor in the equation. </p>