Profile Evaluation: Canadian Law Graduate seeking M7/T15

Age/Sex: 26 y/o Caucasian male

I hope to apply in...: 2-3 years.

Law School: 3.25 GPA (grades deflated, ~top 3% of students get 3.7, I was in about top 1/3 of class), top 3 law school in Canada.

Undergraduate: 3.95 GPA, another top 3 in Canada, bachelor of arts in social sciences (not economics, not business related). Took (and did very well in) multiple quantitative courses such as stats, business calculus, and economics courses that required calculus. I won multiple awards and scholarships, and ranked very highly within the school.

Work Experience: only summer internships thus far. I am currently getting my first full year of work experience at a national law firm (not a sister 7, but a top 15 firm nationally, and also not in Toronto, but in Calgary which is one of the four major markets in Canada). The firm is relatively prestigious amongst the Canadian legal crowd and most of my friends who work at Big 4 professional services firms know it/work with the firm a lot. The job is an "articling" job which is a first year qualifying requirement in Canada before you can pass the bar, where you act as a generalist student who does similar work to an associate but you are not hired into a specific group yet (you work for any and every group). I am working a lot with M&A, restructuring, and banking particularly in the mining and natural resources sectors. Hopefully I get hired on to stay at this firm, otherwise I'll likely end up at a smaller boutique type firm working in corporate/M&A.

Test scores: no GMAT yet, a >97th percentile LSAT. For GMAT, I got a 660 on my diagnostic after not having done any math for 4-5 years (it was also a Manhattan Prep exam which I gather are more difficult than general practice tests). A 720+ is probably realistic and will aim for a 750+. I am also good at standardized tests in general as reflected in my LSAT.

I am incredibly busy as you know lawyers can get so I only want to invest my (scarce) time in the GMAT if I think it will pay off. Sometimes I lose confidence because I'm not sure if I would be able to get into the schools I want to go to.

ECs: Leadership positions at law school, not much in undergrad. Determining what interests me now that I'm in the work force but there is some charity stuff I have lined up.

Career goal: shape more strategy, be closer to where decisions are made. In law, you are basically just taking instructions from your client such that they adhere properly to the law. I am incredibly passionate about business and want to be more deeply involved in it beyond the surface level involvement in law. Consulting seems to be the right fit although internal strategy at a large company could work. Marketing is very relevant to my undergraduate degree, while M&A and restructuring is very relevant to my law degree and work experience, so consulting on these sorts of matters seems realistic.

It is a goal of mine to move to a major city in the US or a major global city such as Singapore/HK/London if possible otherwise I'd be happy to work in Toronto since that is where most of the large business deals and companies are located in Canada. Citizenship will likely be an issue, especially under the new Trump administration.

Goal Schools: Not holding my breath for M7, although I would love to attend any of them, particularly Kellogg I'd like to live in Chicago post-MBA and the school is very strong in marketing and strategy. I am very much open to all the T-15 schools. Yale SOM and Tuck seem great. Interested in Duke, Ross, Darden as well. Open to applying to LBS and INSEAD as well if I have a shot. The lowest I'd go is some place like UCLA, NYU, or UT Austin, maybe Tepper. It would be hard for me to justify going lower because, while I do want to switch into a business career, my legal career does look to be quite strong and I don't want to sell myself short by going to a school that won't improve my career trajectory.

Questions:

Given my trajectory and where I will be in 2-3 years, what level of MBA program in the USA/Europe can I have a shot at? In other words, do I have a shot at M7/INSEAD/LBS level schools, or should I be aiming lower like lower T-15, or is that not even attainable? (I've basically written off HSW given my background).

Are my chances crap if I only apply one year out of law school?

In general, I am just wondering if a top MBA in the US is something realistic for me? I'm just wondering if my low law school GPA, my BA background, my "non-hyper-elite" law firm, or my legal background period will preclude me from getting into the top MBAs.

I'm really passionate about making the transition to a business career and I'm highly driven. Any advice is appreciated.