OK, so I know you were asking for someone with experience with this question who doesn't just want to give their personal opinion...and I have no experience with this question, and I'm just going to give you my personal opinion. Sorry

1) Someone mentioned that the top firms hire from the top 10% of Howard. This is going to be true with most good schools; lawyers generally hold the top grads of lower-ranked schools in higher regard than mid-ranked grads from better schools (or at least, this is how the lawyers at my firm feel...and the general hearsay around website like this support that). But you can't count on being in the top 10% of your class, and you'll be much better off in the middle of your class at Georgetown than at the middle of your class at Howard. Again, I don't have any experience that supports this, but my guess is that the median salaries of Gtown and Howard graduates would show that this is probably true.
2) Debt. I can't speak to your personal situation, because I'm not you, and I don't know all of the factors that play into your decision. However, $12000 a year in debt is not that much if you are making $125K/year (plus bonus), as most Gtown private sector grads do. And for other careers, you have LRAP. I think of my law school as an investment...the more that I spend on it now, the better off I will be later in life.
3) Dangit, Georgetown is a better school. They have better professors, are more selective in who they let in, have a much better reputation among judges, lawyers, and professors, and will give you better connections in life (especially within the D.C. area). If you're going to shell out money for something, why not shell it out on this?
4) Did someone mention class size? Georgetown has an incoming class of 600. While this is huge compared to other law schools, it is still small compared with most colleges. Were you ever really bothered by the large class sizes at your school? My school has 6000 students, and I never thought twice about it.
Here, do this for me. Think of five types of jobs that you'd like to have 10 years from now. Let's say this list includes: 1)big law firms, 2)small/medium size law firms, 3)governmen agencies, 4)in-house counsels, and something else. Go to the websites of these types of employers. You will find many, many more Georgetown grads than Howard grads. Don't assume that public interest/government type jobs aren't snobby about what schools they hire from. Many are even more elitist than big law firms.