As a Michigan 1L who will be going through this Law Review application process in a couple of weeks, I'll tell you what I know. There is a writing competition where they give you a predetermined amount of time (this year it's a week) and all of the materials you will need and ask you to write. This is the single most important part of your application. The bonus is, it's done after finals instead of during classes like some other places (otherwise I never would have considered trying to write on). They also require you to write a couple of essays - one I know is about what your note topic will be (FYI for those of you who don't know, a note is a law student scholarly piece designed for publication in law review). They consider grades and stuff too but emphasize that the writing sample is most important.
Hopefully this answers your question. Since I haven't actually gone through this process, I can only tell you what the older students have told me...
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