Profile Evaluation Request - Top Canadian programs and HEC

Hello Alex,

If familiar with HEC - Paris and/or the top Canadian Programs I was wondering if you would be interested in evaluating my profile.

Male 26yo Eastern Canadian
GMAT: 760, 49Q, 47V, 6.0 AWA
GPA: Bachelor of Commerce (Co-op) 3.33, 3.5 last two years
WE: 2.5 years Economic Development (Business Analyst, Marketing Coordinator)

I'll be applying to HEC Paris along with the top Canadian programs with September 2011 intakes (No Queen's or Ivey). My first choice is HEC and my desire upon graduation is to return to my native Canada and work in Quebec (Montreal preferably). My command of the French language is at the intermediate level (was once quite higher), but I'll be taking french courses beginning January 2011 and I fully suspect to be fluent by graduation. After graduation I would like to work in the fields of finance and/or strategy. Although I enjoy my work in economic development I feel that I could still be involved in that field through work on BoDs or through other forms of volunteer work while moving on to something more challenging and involving.

The one black mark on my application is that I have a 2 year break in my work experience due to a poor decision to attend law school in 2007. I was under intense familial pressure to attend and performed very poorly as a result. I failed two of my 6 courses in my first year which required me to repeat all six courses again. I withdrew early in the second semester of the second year as I could no longer justify wasting my time doing something I loathed. Needless to say I'm concerned that I won't be able to explain this poor performance away in supplementary essays and that it will be a major detractor.

So, given my profile information I've identified several concerns that I've tried to address in my essays:

1. Law School performance
2. Gap in work experience due to law school attendance and the related lack of career progression that follows
3. Applications won't have made any R1's for these schools (targeting completion in first week of December)

I think I can provide compelling reasons to consider the strengths of my application over the apparent weaknesses and although I would consider re-applying next year with another year of experience, I would much prefer to attend now as I feel at the age of 27 I have the requisite level of maturity and the opportunities in my general area for career progression are minimal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance