Sorry, but, I thought that MI was on central time and GA on EST. Further, if you wanted to include all of the CAL schools, you would also have Stanford and USC. Further the legal markets, between San Diego, LA, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, are exponentially stronger than not just MI but almost the entire midwest put-together.
As to residency, you will need to prove financial independence for two years. If Michigan is the quintessential collegiate experience–whatever that may mean–UCLA is the inflection point of all things west coast cool and sexy—