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Accepted at school X and waitlisted at school Y. School Y is my dream school, but school X is a solid second choice.

Had been generally leaning toward deferring matriculation for a year, but would happily give that up to attend school Y if accepted off its waitlist (school Y does not accept deferral requests for admits off the waitlist).

Question: if the applicant deposits at school X and defers matriculation 1 year at that school, can he still remain on Y's waitlist, and accept Y's offer, if it comes through, to attend the same fall?
Second - if he defers admission at X, and is then rejected from Y's waitlist, can he apply again that fall to Y while deferred at X?

(My intuition is that the first is OK and the second is not, but I have no idea how this actually works. I assume this is something that's fairly standard across schools, so if anyone knows this for sure I'd appreciate it)

Depends on if the deferral is binding or not. Most are. You'd have to check the terms of the deferral agreement you'd be signing.

So, if the deferral agreement to school X is "binding," that means that even the first option is out? If you defer to fall 2013 at school X, you can't accept a later waitlist offer to attend school Y in fall 2012?

That surprises me - I mean, I know that in normal scenarios not involving deferrals, you can be fully committed to a school, then receive a last-minute waitlist offer from another school (even, in some cases I've heard of, after you've begun attending classes at the first school), and drop everything and head to that school. If that's kosher, I'm surprised to hear that it usually wouldn't be allowed to cancel the deferral commitment a full year in advance of matriculation.

Yes, if a deferral agreement is binding, there is almost certainly language that you have to withdraw all applications from other schools that year. Again, check the language of anything you would be signing. I cannot speak on behalf of every law school out there, since I don't know which one you're talking about.

Most seat deposits are not binding in the same way, although some are.

Good to know, I'll make sure to read the fine print then. Thanks.