Top Law Schools

My reasons for wanting to attend Duke, Northwestern, UVA and--more recently--UMich differ from the reasons that most people suggest writing about in the "Why [X]" essays. For example:

I want to attend Northwestern primarily because their emphasis on work experience will lead to a community of peers with real-world experience. During my undergraduate and graduate programs, I always gravitated towards older people because their knowledge and stories coming from other fields helped round out my education.

I considered writing an essay about why working before law school is critical based on my experience and using that as a springboard to discuss why I would fit in well at Northwestern, and why I believe the quality of education there (not from teachers, but from classmates) will be superior, at least for me. However, the advice I keep reading online is 'dig into the website and write about their classes and faculty and student organizations.'

Is my first approach viable, or should I go with the second? The first would be more sincere, but I can write well either way.

My recommendation would be to go with the first approach. Writing about student orgs and classes should, IMO, be the last resort for applicants without a better reason to write about. Every T13 is going to have similar student orgs and similar classes and similarly stellar faculty; it'd be pretty hard to spin a compelling Why NW out of that foundation.

If you have any sort of any way to bring in a personal connection to the school predating your law school application I would make sure to highlight it, unless its like ridiculously ephemeral.