<p>@HappyAlumnus: I agree with you that the data shows a lot of law students have work experience. However, to follow up on what bluebayou pointed out, this correlation is not evidence of causation. For evidence of causation, we’d have to look at what we’d expect to see if work experience were a significant factor. Namely, we’d expect to see people with otherwise low numbers but solid work experience nevertheless getting admitted. I haven’t seen any evidence of that. </p>
<p>As an initial matter, it would be odd if schools cared about work experience (which is what makes NWU such an outlier). Schools are consumer (student) driven like every business. Consumer demand is very sensitive with regards to USNWR rankings. For some reason, prospective law students care a lot about what their school is ranked. This effect isn’t just in terms of trying to get into the T14. Even a move from 51 to 49 has huge economic effects. This is one reason why the deans at bad law schools get paid so much when they move up in ranks, and fired when they don’t. Since, as taxguy correctly notes, work experience isn’t factored into the rankings, it would be strange for law schools to care about it. They would be trading off something their consumers care about for something they don’t. </p>