While I think I agree with you in principal, I don't actually think most postgrad programs in the US give a shit. Especially in JD I get the impression (which could be wrong) that they want to train you as a blank slate, it's hard to train you "out" of stuff you may have learned on the job. It's probably a "bad" thing, in fact, but I get the impression that's the way it is.
If you want to do Law in the US, be aware you have to pass the bar in each state in which you want to practice, very, very few attorneys pass the bar in more than one state. So you may even want to go to school in the state in which you want to practice.

There are a very few states that still have a work-experience program that allows you to bypass the JD requirement. This saves you a metric fuckton of money but the "pass" rate for the first test (called the "mini-bar") is fucking abysmal, it really is do-it-yourself. CA has such a program if you'd like to check it out.

Wow crazy, I'm totally wrong for most of the US!

Okay, my state does not allow reciprocity, which can be really good for citizens as it's hard to sue them here (you have to be licensed to practice here, which means passing our bar, and no one else's). I mistakenly thought this was the case for most of the US. My apologies.

Yeah no problemo, I looked into this last year because a few of my friends did the NY bar (I'm keeping this possibility in the back of my mind as well). Apparently, the NY and California bars are the best ones to do as far reciprocity goes.

When there is no reciprocity agreement between the states involved (and often there is not), the customary form of admission is pro hac vice. Usually this means you must engage a local attorney to act as your partner, gofer, or minder.

California actually has no reciprocity, just an abbreviated bar exam for lawyers in good standing elsewhere. Oregon has reciprocity with Washington and Idaho in some cases.

Here's a detailed list of reciprocity agreements:

http://www.juristech.com/chart.html

Right, and that's exactly what they have to do, an attorney from my state has to sign his name on all the documents, he has to attend court, etc. This can be an expensive proposition for a two bit company from across the US that is threatening you with a lawsuit, you just tell them to fuck off in my state, because almost none of them will go to this expense.

A notorious case where the technicalities of pro hac vice came into play was Strickland v. Sony (the Devin Moore case, where Jack Thompson managed to behave so badly he not only got his pro hac vice appointment in Alabama revoked, but also got disbarred in Florida).

Lmao, I had no idea that he was practicing in a different state, I always tried not to pay attention to him. That's kind of funny now, knowing the details, though.