"Clearly, law school performance is also a factor in legal success. I think we agree on that. It follows, then, that if LSAT performance correlates with law school success (it does) then by transitive property the LSAT also correlates with legal success. Unless you now don't buy the predictive value of law school."
I love how you say "law school performance is also a factor in legal success." "Also"? Law school performance is one of the only factors (besides people skills/personality) in legal success...is it not? Who cares about the LSAT once first day of 1L starts? It's ancient history. Law school grades, and class rank, are all that matter.
You are making a baseless assumption that the LSAT correlates with law school success. I won't bother fleshing out why.
I'll say this much is true: the LSAT correlates with legal success, in the sense that the higher the LSAT score then the better chances in getting into a higher ranking school, and as a result there are better chances in getting a high paying job. Is "correlate" the right word though?
I'd say the LSAT, if anything, definately helps pave the wave for "legal success," but I can't see any sort of correlation. Hard work, dedication, and intelligence paves the way for legal success - not doing well on a face-paced, multiple choice test.
If there is any "correlation" between the LSAT and legal success, I can maybe see it in studying for and taking the bar exam (i.e., answering multi-state multiple choice questions under timed conditions). However, the bar exam tests knowledge of the law (opposed to the LSAT, which requires no studying of substantive material), so I scratch that thought.