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I would maybe consider another personal statement.

I realize that it has effected you, and it's probably very important to you, but the second adcomms feel you're playing the emotional card they throw their guards up. If you do it, you'll have to do it super tactfully.

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Talk about what you learned from it.
Talk about how it changed you.
Talk about examples of this change in action.
Talk about the challenges of living up to your new world view.
Use the last sentence to tell them what it actually was.
Very powerful.

Something like....

"I never imagined that the suicide of my closest friend could have such a valuable impact on my life"

Nothing in this approach is sob story.

I did my personal statement from the perspective of losing an immediate family member. I think that it works as long as you don't dwell on the tragedy itself. The PS shouldn't be about the tragedy -- it should be about your ability to overcome, how it shaped your interests and passions, etc. As weird as it sounds, the tone should be positive.

I think it could be a very powerful personal statement topic. To second what other posters have said, don't dwell too much on the tragedy itself, but instead focus on how it has shaped you. Also try to tie it back in to why it either fuels your desire to be an attorney, or how it has shaped your character in a manner that will afford you success in your career.

Hard to judge without reading a draft.

Do it. I did something very similar (death and suicide) for a scholarship essay and it worked. The issue with mixing it in the PS is that you want to make the PS about YOU, and you typically only have a limited word count to do so. So you have to tell the story briefly and then move on to how it's shaped your life. Very difficult to do with a limited word count, but it can be done.

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