Dear Ricey. For some (techical) reason I was unable to answer your private message, so I'll send my reply this way:

I'm Finnish and consequently my credentials are bit different from what most Americans would have (we have neither student-edited law reviews nor clerkships in Finland). I had very good grades (not perfect, though), extremely good recommendation letters (not written by really famous persons, just good scholars), and a couple of publications. Moreover, I had received two merit-based scholarships as a student, and I'm a Fulbright graduate student. I also had some teaching experience. I don't have, however, much experience outside academia (I'm currently a doctoral student). You should bear in mind that most universities, especially Yale, really emphasize academic merit. What I think you could do is to get some more academic experience. For instance, I wrote two articles last summer, before I started to apply. You could write some book reviews. Or write a short article on your field of specialty. It doesn't have to be the leading journal in the field, just try to show that you are committed to legal scholarship. You've done law review and that is very good. Is it possible for you to get some teaching experience before applying? I gave a series of lectures last fall (once again, with LL.M program in mind). Perhaps you could contact your former professors and tell them that you would be interested in doing some teaching at your former law school. These are my tips for Yale. Yale program is for future law teachers, and that's why teaching and publishing credentials are very important (but I want to emphasize that I only had two articles and approximately five book reviews on my CV, nothing spectacular). On the other hand, Harvard and Columbia are also open to lawyers from outside academia. When applying to them, emphasize your work experience. Also, try to distinguish yourself from other applicants. I think I got some advantage over other applicants by telling different law schools that I'm interested in American legal and constitutional history. If you apply to Columbia, for instance, don't just mention that you're interested in securities regulation and corporate law, and want to practice in NY. Tell something more specific in your essay, like "I'm interested in law and economics of hedge fund management and in this area professor X of Columbia Law School is conducting really path-breaking studies, and I want to study with him". These kind of statements may well distinguish you from all the "dime-a-dozen" corporate lawyers who are applying to Columbia.

In sum:
1) you can never have too many credentials, so publish something, anything, and figure out whether you can get some teaching experience before applying to Yale
2) Do some background research on different law schools and their faculty, and try to "tailor" your interests with theirs
3) Make sure that the people who write you recommendations know what American law schools are looking for, and ask them to be specific

Best of luck with your applications. Start preparing early (in Septemer, at the latest), apply for a number of law schools, and you will certainly make it.-Toni-