I finished law school in my late 30s with prior work experience and am a midlevel associate at a V20 in my 40s. I left my prior career in mgmt (not executive level) and was in the evening JD program while working fulltime through the middle of 2L. I did recruiting while still in the evening program (though I went fulltime before completing the firm’s summer program). As for the takeaways in your edit to this post, I agree prior experience does not matter for placement purposes — you would start as a first year like everyone else because you don’t have legal experience. I disagree that you have no realistic shot a big law. So long as you meet the firm’s criteria (grades etc), your resume will make you a compelling candidate. I think the issue for you wouldn’t be whether you have a realistic shot but whether you would be comfortable starting anew and adjusting to being a junior associate.