<p>USNWR rankings also take employment statistics into account. A candidate for law school admissions who has work experience is probably more employable than someone who has no pre-law school work experience, and so having applicants who have work experience probably helps those rankings at least in a small way. Not that HLS needs to care about employability, but its new emphasis on work experience is in light of those rankings.</p>
<p>When I was going through in the mid-'90s, definitely less than 76% of each entering class took time off between college and law school, so a focus on work experience is new.</p>
<p>HLS has plenty more applicants with numbers in line with what the school looks for, so the school probably just uses work experience as an extra tie-breaker between otherwise equally-qualified students.</p>
<p>I am not speaking for other law schools here, just HLS.</p>